


Promise?

by arrowfelicity



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Arrow - Fandom
Genre: F/M, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-24
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-06 00:07:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 31,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1837129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arrowfelicity/pseuds/arrowfelicity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Oliver and Felicity were actually childhood best friends; they were re-united when he got back from the island and Oliver then discovers Felicity is sick.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In the beginning...

**Author's Note:**

> Background: Both Felicity and Oliver were born in Texas. When Oliver was eight he moved to Starling City and a year later Felicity moved to Vegas with her mom to get away from her dad.

Both children sat on the swing, extending their legs and pulling them back in accordingly.

“I wish you could stay here with me.” Little Oliver said, grabbing her hand. 

“Me too.”

Felicity was seven and Oliver was eight at the time, and their undying love was inevitable since last week. 

He gasped, getting an idea like he usually did and suddenly stopped the swing. He got down on one knee, still holding her hand.

“Felicity… What’s your last name again?” He asked.

“Smoak. What are you doing?” She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Wait, you’ll see. Felicity Smoak. I have known you forever. Since last year. And you are my bestest friend ever. And I love you.” He said, sincerity shinning in those little child’s eyes.

“You said this before, Oliver. Why are you getting you pants dirty? Your mom is going to get mad at you again.” She rolled her eyes. 

“I have a propsal?” 

“A proposal?”

“Yeah, that. I think that we will see each other again, and when we do, we’ll get married. That way nobody can keep us apart.” He smiled from ear to ear, proud to have to come up with the idea all on his own. 

“Marry? We’ll have our own house? And LIVE in the same house?” She asked, not sure if her meant the real married like her own mom and dad. “Are we gonna fight too, once we get married?” She furrowed her brow, worried. 

“Of course not! I’ll just kiss you on our wedding and that’s it.” He smiled. 

“Promise?” She asked, leaning in. 

“Promise.”


	2. Re-United

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He finds her after all that time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *There's a trick to the phone number... Can you find it?* :P

“Felicity Smoak?”   
She was sitting at her desk and looked up and saw him. THE him. The HIM.  
“Oliver Queen.” She said simply, smiling from ear to ear. She jumped out of the desk chair and  
Jump/hugged him, throwing her arms around his neck.  
“You haven’t changed one bit Felicity Smoak, except for your hair.” He said, letting her go. “I wish I could say the same about you, lover boy. I hear you’re quite the ladies’ man now.” She winked.   
“I didn’t know you worked for QC! I would have come see you sooner if I’d known.”  
“I was giving you space, I know you must feel bombarded after coming back.” She felt terrible bringing it up but it was true.  
She’d applied here with the sole purpose of finding Oliver Queen, only to find out a month after arriving that he’d been lost at sea. She often thought the only reason she cried was because now she’d felt without him she’d really end up as an old cat lady. She couldn’t see how beautiful she was.  
He sighed. Those five years had robbed him of so much he could have lived, including Felicity Smoak. “Can you take a break?”  
“I don’t know, boss, can I?” She asked him.  
He chuckled half-heartedly and held the door open for her.   
They started making conversation as they walked to the café in the corner:  
F: So how have you been adjusting?  
O: Okay, I guess. But tell me all about you. What happened after I moved? We had no facebook then  
F: Haha, no, we didn’t. Well, a year later we moved to Vegas, and I worked my way through college.  
O: I hear you’re the best IT girl to go to  
F: I’ll take that as a compliment.   
O: You should! What about your mom?  
F: Ehh, she’s still working as a waitress  
O: men in your life?  
F: I wouldn’t have the time for them.  
Oliver gave her a scrutinizing look.   
F: Ok, let’s just say you’re the only man that’s ever been in my life.  
O: Why?  
F: I don’t know, maybe it’s my glasses that scare them away, haha  
O: You know what I mean. Why haven’t you let anyone in?  
F: I did too! I had a best friend in college, Margo, she graduated in Psychology.  
O: Where is she now?  
F: *sigh* she moved. But nonetheless, now we do have internet, thank God, so we still keep in touch.  
Oliver opened the café door for her.  
F: How about you? Who have YOU let in since you came back?   
O: That’s different.  
F: Maybe in situation, but the solution is the same.  
O: When did you get all philosophical?  
F: When have I ever not been smarter than you?  
She winked at him as they sat down at the table.   
O: Well, you know that whenever you need to talk to someone, you can always talk to me. In fact, give me your number now.  
F: 693-354-2484  
O: Saved. I’ll message you as soon as we get out of here so you have my number too.  
She chuckled.  
F: Alright, sounds great.  
They drank their cups of coffee comfortably. More comfortably than Oliver had felt since he arrived from the island of Lian Yu.   
Being with her was like being a child again, his worries evaporated away into the wind, and his pains disappeared.   
“I’ll call you.” He told her when he walked her to her office later.   
“Alright, Queen, but don’t keep me waiting. I’ve already waited almost 20 years!”  
He smiled, and walked down the hall, phone in hand.   
From where he was standing he heard her phone ring.  
“Hello?” She answered.  
“Is this fast enough, or should I wait a couple hours first?”   
She laughed hysterically and hung up the phone.


	3. Meeting the family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver takes her to meet his closest family

Felicity was eating a microwaved macaroni and cheese on her couch watching TV when her phone rang. “Hello?” She answered. “What are you doing now?” Oliver’s voice asked. She glanced at her pathetic meal and her surroundings. “Nothing. What’s up?”   
“You want to join me for dinner? Some friends are coming. I think you could use some social interaction.” She could already hear his smile in his voice.   
“Weelll then! That’s so sweet, you’re looking out for my social life! I’ll have you know sir, I’m perfectly capable of finding my own friends.”  
“Are you alone in your apartment watching TV?” He asked. She considered lying, looking around, and finally sighed and agreed. “Alright. FINE. Pick me up in thirty minutes.”  
“I’ll see you in a bit, Smoak.” He grinned.   
>>>\---- >   
He knocked on her door and ten seconds later, she swung open the door. She was wearing jeans, teal heels that matched her oversized teal sweater and her hair had been put up in a messy bun.   
“I hope you weren’t thinking about a fancy dinner.” She warned him too late. Truth be told, Oliver was picturing her in that outfit with him, which didn’t surprise him in the least, since he had a reputation for it, but she wasn’t used to being looked at like that.  
“Umm, Oliver?” She waved her hand in front of his face. “Oh. Yeah, no you’re fine. Sorry, I was thinking of another place we could go to, because they won’t allow you inside dressed like that… All the old men will get boners.”  
“OLIVER!” She gasped, and threw a nearby cushion at him, her face beet red with embarrassment. He caught the cushion and shrugged, laughing.   
“Come on, Smoak! Everyone’s waiting to meet my betrothed!”  
“Aww, you remember that?” She asked, genuinely surprised. “Of course I do,” He elbowed her ribs. “If I didn’t remember asking a woman to marry me I think we’d all be in big trouble.”  
“Oliver I wasn’t a woman back then. I was seven.” She rolled her eyes.   
He cringed. “Really? We’re getting old, Smoak.”  
>>> \---- >  
She walked into the under-ground secret room, going down the stairs and saw a group of people at the bottom, all sitting around on a mat and drinking red wine.   
“Hey everyone!” Oliver shouted, waving his arms like a lunatic.   
Everyone looked up and she got that sudden social anxiety attack she always got when she had to meet one new person, let alone… no, she wasn’t going to count them.  
Oliver pointed at the person and said their names:  
Short brunette with wave hair and heels higher than her entire foot. “This is Thea.”  
Taller handsome man with a strong jaw and a red hoodie. “This is Roy, Thea’s boyfriend.”  
Blonde, freckled, beautiifuull woman. “Sara, badass in a black leather suit who beats people up.”  
An attractive black man in a jacket. “This is my best buddy Diggles.”  
A skinny brunette in a suit jacket. “And this is Laurel. She’s Sara’s sister the lawyer.”   
Another handsome, dark haired man. “Tommy. Laure’s boyfriend.”  
Felicity shook each of their hands and smiled big, trying to cover up the heart beat pounding in her ear.   
“Everyone, this is Felicity.” She giggled, and widened her eyes. Did she just giggle in front of everyone?  
“So what were you up to?” Oliver asked.   
“I was trying to convince them to play truth or dare, but they’re whiners.” Thea pouted  
Oliver handed Felicity a glass of red wine.   
“Thank you.” She smiled.   
“What game do you think we should play, Felicity? Because you’re new, it’s up to you.” Diggle said.   
Everyone turned to look at her expectantly. She gulped the wine she had in her mouth, hands shaking and stuttered, “Um, ho- how about… Never have I ever?”  
“That’s a great idea!”  
“Nooo!!!!” Thea buried her face in Roy’s shoulder.  
“Alright everybody. In a circle it is.” Oliver commanded. “This is probably the best way to get to know anyone. I’ll get the tequila and the shots.”  
In a few minutes everyone had a full shot of tequila in front of them and Oliver decided it would be a good idea to let Thea start.   
“Umm, okay… Never have I ever… Worked a day in my life.” She grinned.   
Except for Thea, everyone groaned and went bottoms up with their shot. The tequila bottle went around to refill.   
“That’s cheating.” Roy mumbled. “Ok, my turn. Never have I ever kissed a man.”  
The women, Felicity included took another shot of glass.   
It was Diggle’s turn. “Never have I ever had a period.”  
There was an uproar. “This is just your ply to get the women drunk!” Thea shouted.   
Then it was Tommy’s turn. “Never have I eveeerrr…..” He thought this one over carefully, because Laurel was there. “Kissed a redheaded woman.” He winked at Laurel.   
It was one of his many regrets that before meeting Laurel he never got to hook up with a fiery chick. Everyone booed him for being boring and Felicity almost got away with seeping the dink quietly.  
Until Oliver froze and then so did everyone else, watching her.   
“I thought you said there was nobody special in your life!” He souted.  
“Hmm, I said there was no MAN. And there’s no woman either, I did it on a dare. Friends in Vegas are hard to entertain.” She mumbled, flushing, and everyone laughed, cheering her drunk.   
“Not so innocent as you thought, big brother!” Thea laughed and Sara wooed her.   
“Listen, if you ever wanna get out of here,” Diggle pushed Sara to stop her from messing more with Felicity.   
They spent the rest of the night and into early morning getting a laugh at everything everyone said, and shouting and cheering and soon Felicity’s wall started to come down. She laughed loudly and drank more, actually getting tipsy, which hadn’t happened since… well.   
She didn’t remember much after that, except some people going home in a cab, and her being extremely tired. She didn’t remember falling asleep but when she opened her eyes she looked around and saw she was in a fancy bedroom, on a four-poster bed and more pillows than she could use.  
She HAD to be in Oliver Queen’s house. Was this his bedroom? She grinned and jumped off the bed, snooping around. It didn’t seem as though this room belonged to anybody. It didn’t have any pictures, or personal artifacts, and it was decorated extravagantly, like a hotel.   
Was she in a hotel? She ran to the window.  
No, she was in a mansion. It so had to be Oliver’s house.


	4. Sara in the scheme of things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity finds out Sara spent the night with Oliver and decides to take action. Just not in the direction she should have.

She opened the door a fraction of an inch and the house was dead silent. She poked her head out and the hallway was empty, so she walked out, closing the door behind her. She sneaked down the stairs and wondered around until she found Raisa in the kitchen.   
“Raisa?” She asked. The woman turned round and saw her, confused. Her eyes narrowed and then she could see recognition in her eyes.   
“Miss Felicity!” She yelped in surprise. “You’re so big now, not a little girl anymore!”  
The ladies hugged for a few seconds and Raisa pulled away. She had been the one who gave Felicity and Oliver their afternoon treats and spoiled them with dessert before dinner.   
“How have you been?” Raisa asked her. “I’m great, really, I graduated top in my class at MIT, and now I’m working at QC!” Raisa praised her.  
“Do you know where Oliver’s room is? I haven’t seen him.”  
“It’s upstairs, down the hall, third to the left.”  
“Thank you Raisa.” Felicity winked at her as she walked away.  
She crepped up the stairs, not wanting to wake up any other Queens if they were sleeping and counted the doors. One… Two…   
“Three.” She whispered. She knocked quietly on the door three times and waited. She was about to walk away but the door opened and Sara was standing there, wearing a robe, her hair was a complete mess.  
“Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean to wake up, I must have gotten the wrong door, I was looking for-”  
“Felicity?” Oliver poked his head out from behind Sara.  
A little bump formed in her throat and she smiled, scared her voice might give her away, and waved at him like an idiot.   
“I didn’t know you were up, do you want to get breakfast?” He was buttoning up a shirt and she thought she saw a scar, but couldn’t confirm, he had already buttoned up the next one.   
“We’ll just finish getting ready and-”  
“NO!” He froze and looked at her, confused. “I mean, I have to run, I had a thing to do this morning and I’m super late, I just wanted to thank you for not leaving me there… alone.” She explained, looking down the hall as an excuse not to look at him,  
She knew her face had to be as red as it felt. She felt so embarrassed.   
“Of course I brought you home. I didn’t want to go through your things to find your keys.” He said.  
“Anyways, I had a lot of fun. And it was really nice to meet you.” She smiled wide at Sara before turning away and walking out of the house without looking back once.   
>> \--------- >>  
She went back to her apartment in a cab. She focused on her work due soon for the defense division, inviting Margo over to the city since she was in Central City visiting her brother and was close by. She booked dinner reservations for them and read a book, she watched a movie, and finally dreading it, took a shower.  
Showers were the only time during the day when she got to think, when the steam rolled off her back and relaxed her so much she thought about her day.  
She thought about her morning.  
Seeing Raisa was wonderful. She had been to Felicity like a mother. And last night had been amazing. They had had so much fun, everyone accepted her so completely she found it bizarre.   
But then… She wasn’t quite sure what she felt when she realized Sara and Oliver had spent the night together. She wasn’t jealous, or sad, or mad. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she knew she was uncomfortable with the idea of the two of them together.   
You’re being prejudiced, a little voice inside her head said. She sighed, shampooing her hair. She’d just have to get over it, she concluded.   
She might have made them feel uncomfortable though, so she’d have to invite them to go somewhere so they knew she wasn’t being weird… At least not in front of them. Once she got out of the shower with a towel around her body and another on her head, she texted Oliver.  
F- ‘What’s the best club we can all go to tonight?’  
O- ‘Verdant. Meet you there at 9?’  
F- ‘Ya’  
Feeling self-satisfied, she got dressed and finished the project for work so tonight she didn’t have a thing to worry about.   
>> \---------- >  
Felicity, like the worrier she was, made it to the club an hour earlier to make sure she wouldn’t get lost on the way there. She hadn’t really paid attention the night before when Oliver was driving.  
She wore a white strapless corset with jeans and a leather jacket. As she looked around though, and felt under-dressed, seeing all the women with short tight dresses.   
She was wondering how they managed to keep them from riding up when a man she hadn’t noticed had sat next to her began to talk.  
“Why is a pretty lady like you looking around at everyone dancing instead of dancing herself?” When she looked up she saw Tommy.  
“Hey!” She hugged him. “I didn’t even realize you were there!” she told him.  
“I DID notice that! I was wondering how long it’d take you, but I have little patience, one of my very, VERY few flaws.” He winked at her.   
“Where’s Laurel?” She asked him.  
“Oh, she still didn’t feel too good from last night. I was going to stay with her, but she insisted so I came, but I didn’t notice the time until I got here early. Seems I wasn’t the only one.” He smiled.  
“Yeah, ha, I didn’t want to get lost.” She rolled her eyes at herself.   
Tommy and Felicity shared a small awkward silence before he pointed at the dance floor.  
“Would you care to join me?” He asked.  
She hesitated for one second, nodded, and let him take her hand to lead the way through the crowd.  
They started by just swaying from side to side in front of each other. Then tommy grabbed her hand and twirled her around, earning a laugh from her.  
He held his arm out, holding her hand as she stretched out her arms too. He nodded and she curled herself up in both their arms, at which point Tommy dipped her and she scream-laughed.   
“You could have dropped me!” She shouted over the music as they went back to twirling and pretending to know how to dance.   
“But I didn’t!” He shouted back.   
After a while, on one of her turns she got a glimpse of Oliver at the bar with Sara. Sara was looking elsewhere and Oliver staring at her, laughing his ass off.  
“Tommy! Tommy!” She stopped dancing and grabbed his shoulders. “They’re here!” She yelled, and pulled him out of the crowd, heading towards Oliver and Sara.  
“Hey you guys!” She went to hug Sara, who felt a little stiff under her arms.  
She ignored it and hugged Oliver.  
“I thought you said you were a bad dancer!” Oliver said.  
“It was all Tommy!”  
“Don’t you lie! Oliver! Go take this lady out for a spin, she’ll blow your mind!” Tommy demanded.  
Laughing, Oliver finished his drink and, without looking at Sara, got up and led Felicity back on the dance floor.  
She curled herself in his arms, like she did with Tommy, and somehow, he untangled both of them without letting her hands go.   
“Whoo!” She shouted.   
He pulled her in close at times, much closer than he probably should with, and WAY closer than he should have with Sara sitting on the sidelines.   
After a while she couldn’t stand her feet any longer, though. She stopped Oliver, took her heels off and limped back to the bar where Tommy and Sara seemed to be having a serious conversation.   
As soon as they approached though, Tommy’s face lit up.   
“Look who’s finally given up!” He mocked her.   
“Uh-uh. No, sir. Heels give up. Not me.” She shook her index at him. “I’d dance more, but I’m afraid of a heel stepping on my foot.” She sat.   
“I have to go to the ladies’ room.” Sara said, and got up.  
After she was gone both men were quiet. “OK, is she mad at me or something?” Felicity asked.  
“No, she’s just- she doesn’t understand why we had to come. We were supposed to just stay in tonight and spend time together, but she doesn’t understand. I just found my best friend, I need to spend some time with you to make up for the past 20 years!” Oliver explained.  
“Oliver, I feel bad, you should go with her.” She told him.   
“Oh, look! Diggle brought Lyla! I’ll be back.” Tommy cowarded out.   
“I can’t, she just jumped out the window in the women’s bathroom. That’s what that was.” He shrugged. “Come on, we can have some drinks.” He motioned the bartender over.   
“Actually, Oliver, I kind of want to go home now and put my feet in the pool.”  
“Isn’t it closed by now?” He asked. She looked at her watch. It was 1:30 am.   
“I’ll jump the fence. They turn the camera off at night. Dumbasses.” She rolled her eyes.   
“Then I can’t very well let you break the law by yourself. I’m coming with.” He got up and handed her purse to her.   
>>> \-------- >  
They were sitting side by side, their bare feet in the pool water. It was quiet and lonely and dark.  
“Oliver.” Felicity broke the silence.   
“Hmm.”  
“What happened on that island? You’ve been having fun with others around. You’ve been acting like nothing happened when you and I know better. I saw a scar on your chest. And I’m guessing it’s not only one.”  
There was silence again for what seemed like eternity.  
“Hell, mostly.” He finally answered.  
“Alright, I have an idea. I say something nobody else knows and then you say something.”  
He nodded.   
“When we were little, my dad used to beat up my mom pretty bad.” She whispered.   
“My dad shot himself on a raft after killing another man for me to live.”   
Felicity’s head snapped up, her eyes wide, but she didn’t look at him. She didn’t want him to see her face.  
“After he beat her unconscious he’d beat me up too.”  
“I had to kill animals to eat.”  
“I let Joey O’Connell touch me down there in the 9th grade.”  
Oliver glared at her sideways. “That jackass? Felicity!”  
“Don’t deviate. It’s your turn.”  
“A man taught me how to survive and I let him die. And then his daughter.”  
“I beat up my dad with a frying pan when he came to Vegas to find my mom and me.”  
This made him chuckle. “Of course you did.” He whispered.   
“Sara was supposed to come on the boat that day because I was cheating on Laurel with her.”  
She didn’t say anything for a while. She knew what came next for her, but she wasn’t there yet.  
“Come on. It’s too early to do this anymore. We need to sleep, and lucky for you my couch is great.” She said. She led the way back to her apartment.   
Oliver followed watching her stride. She’d rolled up her jeans to her knees and taken off the jacket that she now carried in her hand. He knew she’d never fully understand how much she helped just then.   
He’d never told anyone any of those things. He was afraid of being judged, as he probably should be, but he wasn’t scared of her. He said them out loud and he felt as an immense weight fell off his shoulders.   
And for the first time since he got back from the island, he smiled because he meant it.


	5. Felicity's Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's ehh, pretty self explanatory. She has a secret he doesn't know about...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't updated it recently! I have been wifi-less and have been going through withdrawal symptoms.

Felicity was right.  
Her couch was as amazing as she’d described it. It was long and made of a specific fabric that didn’t get sticky on his skin as he attempted to sleep.   
Sunlight was creeping up and he knew she was already asleep, he could hear her even breathing. It was actually peaceful to think she was so calm.  
Or tired.  
He thought about what awaited him today. He had a meeting with his mother, if that was even a thing, at noon for “lunch.” Probably to talk about Diggle’s almost resignation.   
Things had been a little bumpy for Oliver lately. He hadn’t meant for everyone to find out he had a secret lair under the club, it was only luck that he’d hidden everything arrow the night before for inspection.   
Now he used it as a hang out place that his friends always insisted on going. He needed to find another place from which to do his… side business.   
And as if that weren’t enough, Digg only pretended to be okay with him. In reality he was pretty pissed off at Oliver for putting his life in danger when Digg was getting paid to keep him safe.  
He didn’t think about anything for a while, and when he felt it safe, he thought about the things he’d said to Felicity and the things she’d said to him.   
They’d known each other since they were born practically, but he still hadn’t expected such sincerity, almost brutal, from both of them.  
He’d told her things he hadn’t said to himself out loud, pretending she wasn’t there.   
And the things she’d said to him, well… he didn’t say anything because she didn’t say anything when he said his part.  
It was common courtesy. Take some weight off of the other’s shoulder, and don’t try to cover it with a band aid, because they both knew there were no words that could heal a wound that large so soon.   
But to think she’d been through so much, it made him cringe. It was true that she was not in a deserted island fighting for her life, but she deserted herself, and fought to have the strength to keep going every day, every minute, and that was no small thing.  
He sighed, thinking he needed to find a way to bring up the things she went through to help her in some way and that he needed to find a new lair, and drifted off into sleep.  
>>\---------- >  
Felicity woke up because of the knife in her stomach. It wasn’t a literal knife, but that’s what she called it. The burning pain was worse than any cramps she’d ever had. It paralyzed her completely.   
She curled up in bed, her lips parted to breathe, but unable to suck any air into her lungs because that would just make it worse. Her face was red, and she was starting to feel lightheaded as the pain surged through her body like a bloody Freddy Krueger.   
She let a small whimper escape her lips and shut her eyes tight, praying that Oliver wasn’t awake and wouldn’t hear her. A tear slid down her face as she held her position.   
When the pain had decimated enough for her to move slightly, she rolled over and let herself fall on the floor. She crawled to the bathroom, closing the door, and, very painfully, stood up in front of the mirror.  
DAMN IT, she thought. It had happened again.   
First the pain and then the bleeding. She had a trail of blood all the way from her nose, down the side of her face to her neck and soaking through her pajama top.   
She checked her ears. No blood form there.   
She yanked the shirt off and started to warm up the shower water. The warm water would make the pain go away faster.   
>> \------- >  
Oliver woke with a start when he heard the shower running. He looked at his watch.  
11:45.  
Shit. He jumped off the couch and looked around like crazy, looking for his keys. He swung the door open, and thinking of Felicity, she murmured, “Shit” again and ran back. He took a paper and pencil and scribbled down:  
“Sorry I had to run out and leave you without saying goodbye. I’ll make it up to you. Promise.”  
He left it on her nightstand and ran out, completely missing the small trail of blood droplets on the wooden floor that led from her pillow to the bathroom.   
\---- >  
He found his mother sitting at their usual table at her favorite restaurant, Oasis. She was mindlessly spinning her sugar in her tea, sighing.   
To be fair he was half an hour late, and Diggle walked three feet behind him, pretending he never lost sight of where Oliver was at all.   
“Ah, you decided to grace me with your presence.” She said sarcastically, and fixed her posture.   
“I’m sorry mother, I had a little… accident.” He explained, scooting his seat into the table.   
“Mr. Diggle, would you please give us some space?” She asked, looking up at him. He nodded and made his way to the side of the restaurant door, keeping an eye on them from where he stood.  
She rolled her eyes at Oliver, exhausted, and leaned in. “Is it too difficult for you to keep Diggle around? This is for my peace of mind Oliver.”  
“I know.”  
“Do you? Because you seem to purposely make everything much harder than it needs to be.” She said through pursed lips.  
“Mother, I’ve been on a deserted island for five years.”  
“I know that, Oli-”  
“NO, mother. I’ve been on a DESERTED island. ALONE. For FIVE YEARS.”  
She started at him for a couple seconds before understanding what he was saying.   
“Oh well…” She looked away uncomfortably. “Just please, let Diggle know where you’re going to be.” She begged him. He nodded and they continued to have a semi-pleasant lunch.  
>> \------ >>  
Felicity got out of the shower, peeking out the door, and seeing that Oliver wasn’t there, skipped to her bedroom naked, as she’d forgotten her towel yet again.   
She quickly got dressed and cleaned up the evidence that was left.   
If she was honest she’d admit that Oliver being gone disappointed her. He knew he was a ladies’ man, but they hadn’t even had sex, the least he could do is wait until she’s up to run off in the middle of the night.  
She was taking she sheets from the bed when she saw a piece of paper on her nightstand with really bad handwriting. She read it and smiled, laughing because even though they’d been apart most of their lives, he knew she’d want some kind of explanation, even if it sucked.  
She put on a flowery pair of shorts and a red blouse in case she started bleeding again, and white heels.   
She drove all the way to Dr. Lazaro’s office and ignored her phone when Margo called. She was probably making sure she was going to her appointment. She’d missed the last one and Margo was very protective, maybe because Felicity was careless and indifferent with her health.   
Never in her life had she actually found a reason to fight the cancer that was slowly eating her away from the inside out. That’s why she’d moved away from Margo, she was only causing Margo more pain. She’d cry every time she was in the same room as Felicity.  
As she entered the waiting room the first thing she saw was a bright flare of orange. Margo was there, sitting in a chair, waiting for her.   
“Marggooo.” Felicity rolled her eyes as her friend jumped up, half upset and half delighted to see her.   
“You ignored my phone call.”  
“You traveled 3000 miles without calling to make sure I got to an appointment. I think you’re a little at fault here too.” Felicity escaped long enough to sign in.  
“Well, maybe you can show me around, since you ran away from Vegas for this.” She looked around.  
“Margo, I’m busy, I work, I have a life here. I can’t take you touring.” She paid the co-pay.   
“She’ll be right with you, Ms. Smoak.” The assistant behind the window said.   
“Thank you.” She whispered before the window closed.   
“This is a great hospital, I’m sure, but this is not Grace Hospital, Fel, you know Marcus would do a much better job helping with your Leukemia.” Margo said.   
“I don’t want to talk about him.” Felicity fidgeted with her keychain.   
“I think you should see a psychologist, you seem to have a death wish. Have you recently-”  
“Margo, shut UP!” She finally burst. Margo froze, shocked.  
It took her a few seconds to compose herself, and not look at anyone else in the waiting room, full of cancer-ridden people staring at her.  
“OK. I’ll see you around, Fel.”  
“Wait, Margo.”  
But she had already left the waiting room. She sighed, feeling stupid. Her best friend had traveled 3000 miles to see if she was okay, the least she could do is welcome her properly.   
“Felicity Smoak?” The nurse called.   
\------ >  
“Aside from these, have there been any more side effects?” Dr. Lazaro asked, from the other side of the desk.  
“Dizziness, nausea, vomiting blood occasionally, my hair is starting to feel hay-ish, and I don’t fall asleep easy.” She said, looking at her nails.   
“Did someone already draw your blood and take your vitals?”   
“Yes.”  
“Alright, I’m making you another appointment for the chemo in a week, and then we’ll talk about the lab results.” The Dr. said, scribbling on the notepad.   
“See you soon.” She handed her the script, and smiled. “Don’t forget to take your medication.”  
Felicity liked Dr. Lazaro. She understood that Felicity couldn’t be stuck in a hospital day and night.   
She took the script and got up. “I won’t.”


	6. A new Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver finds a new lair

Oliver sat in the lair, thinking about how much he’d fucked up his opportunity at the perfect place. He looked around and fell back on the matted floor, exhausted.  
He’s barely slept last night at Felicity’s apartment. He’d had to bare another lunch with his mother.  
He closed his eyes and he saw her standing right in front of him, eyes widened, shaking.   
He gasped, opened his eyes and sat up again, rubbing his temples. He needed to focus on a new place.   
Or.  
He stood up and sprang up the stairs two at a time until he reached the club. Then he looked up.  
This could work.  
“What could work?” A voice behind him asked.   
He turned around and found Sara walking towards him, smiling apologetically.   
“You know you have a bit of a temper, right?” Oliver asked her.   
“It’s not temper I have. It’s… yeah a bit of a temper.” She nodded. She pulled him close and wrapped her arms around his neck.  
“What are you doing here?” He inconspicuously pushed her away slowly.   
“Just wanted to check in on you, make sure you were okay.” She said, smiling at him suspiciously.   
“You went to my room last night and I wasn’t there.” He guessed.  
“ME!? NO!! ….” She looked away. “I went early this morning.” She admitted.   
“Sara,”  
“I get defensive when suddenly you have a girl best friend that you’ve always known and you love her so much and she loves you so much and you’re mine, and I don’t like to share, Olli.”   
He sighed and decided not to say anything before turning around and behind the bar.   
“So you’re mad at me?”   
“Sara! You acted completely rude to her! And I don’t belong to you, I am not a thing.” He burst at her.  
“You didn’t seem to complain about being mine when you were screwing me the night before you found her.” She accused him.  
“Sara.” He took a deep breath. “I think it’s best if we don’t talk right now. We’re both on defensive mode and we’re just going to end up arguing more.”  
She looked at him for a few seconds before turning on her heels and walking out of the club.  
Once he was alone he went to the back of the storage room and found the wall behind a case of vodka that led to the stairs to the attic.   
He had to go through a series of spider webs before reaching it but when he did he was satisfied.   
This could easily be sound-proofed, there would be a pole installed to slide down faster than he could ever get up from the attic.   
He could set up the lights, and the suit could be hidden in the crook in the wall… He smiled. Yes, this would do just fine.   
The rest of the day he sat down and made a list of all the things he’d need to order form over-seas, from different companies and- well, he knew he needed help erasing his tracks, and that wasn’t something Diggle could help him with.  
And he knew exactly who to ask.  
>> \------- >  
She opened the door and found her laying on her couch. As much as she’d wanted Margo to find her way back home, she knew better than to expect her to do so.   
“How did you get inside?” She asked her, dropping her keys in the bowl next to the door.   
“Spare key under the mat.”  
“Ah.” She really should have known. Margo never missed a thing.   
“How many appointments have you missed?”  
“Only the one.”  
“How’s your health?”  
“If the tests come back fine this time… I’m in remission.”  
“NO WAY!!!” Margo jumped off the couch and attacked Felicity with hugs.   
“It’s STILL not final yet, don’t get too excited!” She told her friend, but it was too late. Margo spent the rest of the afternoon planning their getaways when she’d be free of the hospital for more than a week straight.   
“We could go to Vegas! Oh, wait, no, bad idea. San Francisco! New York! Canccuuunnn!!!!!”  
Even though she didn’t want to admit it, Cancun did sound pretty good right about now.   
\----- >  
The next day at QC she was sitting in her desk when someone knocked on her open door.   
“If the door’s open there’s hardly any reason to knock.” She said, still looking at her screen.  
“Are you always so intently focused on your work?” Oliver asked, coming to sit at one of her chairs.   
“Oh!” She turned around and he saw the pen cap she’d been chewing to the pulp.   
“Hello, Mr. Queen.” She smiled. He opened his mouth to say ‘Not Mr. Queen’ but went instead with, “Just Oliver.”  
“Alright then, Mr. Just Oliver. What can I do for you?”  
“Am I interrupting your job?”  
“Oh, heavens no! I finished the day’s work hours ago.” She laughed.  
“Good, I have a project for you.” He kicked the door close with his foot and leaned in across her desk. “It’s of a more… private nature than your regular job. See…”   
He suddenly stopped, realizing he hadn’t thought of what he’d say right about now.   
“I have a friend who’s really into archery. His birthday’s coming up and I wanted to surprise him.” He finally said.  
“Hah. Okay, so you need 10 archer strippers?” She asked, and seeing his face sobered quickly. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t assume you to be a stripper kind of guy, but if you were that’d be totally cool with me too, but hey, whatever floats you boat, pun not intended because you know… you’re boat sank, and now you probably hate me and I’m rambling again, so I’ll stop that in three, two, one… What was it that you needed?”  
He fought the urge to burst out laughing because it’d attract attention.  
“I need you to order all of this and have it delivered to this address and wipe out anything that could be tracked. None of these shipments can be associated with each other. Do whatever you need to do to get these here.”   
He passed her the address.  
“On different days, at different times, by different people, do it all. And then erase every single detail.”   
She nodded and looked at the address. “Isn’t this the cl-”  
His eyes widened.   
“Ah, right. Okay.” She turned to her computer and started typing away.   
Oliver opened the door and was about to leave when he gritted his teeth, remembering this morning and turned back around.   
“I’m sorry about this morning. I should’ve stayed, at least until you woke up, or made you breakfast or something.” He cringed.  
“It’s fine!” She said. She was actually glad he wasn’t there to witness her little scene.   
“I’ll make it up to you, I promise. How about tomorrow night? I’ll pick you up at 7.”   
And without waiting for an answer he turned around and left.   
“Sooo… I guess it’s alright?” She murmured to herself.   
As Oliver had said this, there was another girl who worked in the IT department with huge eyes and a gaping mouth, staring after Oliver Queen. She then turned to Felicity and turned beet red when she saw Felicity staring at her, and ran off.  
“Noooo, it’s not what it sounds likeeee.” She groaned, letting her head fall back in embarrassment.   
\------- >  
Everything was done. Different times and days and people and as soon as it was delivered, each delivery is programmed to automatically delete its very existence.   
Only someone who knew the connection between all of these at the very same time they occurred could probably get a clue, but not big enough to accurately figure it out.   
She’d outdone herself this time, if she was honest with herself. As she drove home though, she thought about the orders.  
Everything you could possibly find in a hospital, arrows, strings, wood, weapons, and a strange plant seed from the other side of the world, among many other things.   
She wasn’t stupid. She’d figured out who he was as soon as he gave her the list, she’d just kept her mouth shut. He’d tell her when he was ready.  
But when he did, he’d better be telling her to join his secret elite thing that he had going on. This could be the very thing she needed to get her mind off of needles and the smell of alcohol.


	7. A piece of Chilhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they have a little childish fun

“Soooo…. You’re going on a date with your boss?”  
“It’s not a date Margo!”  
“Who has a girlfriend already?”  
“Again, it’s not a date. We’re just friends.”  
“That’s the cheesiest, biggest lie in the world.”  
Felicity sighed, crossing her arms, unable to think of anything to say that would get her friend off her back.  
“Does he know? You know, about the…”  
“Cancer? No, and he doesn’t need to know!” She stomped off to the bedroom to put her shoes on.  
“Well, if you die he might wanna know why you died and that might be a little hard to explain from the grave.” Margo followed Felicity into the bedroom.   
“Ooohh, should I stay the night at a hotel? Because I can totally dot that.” Felicity froze, turned back around and said in a low voice.  
“It’s not a date, I’m just hanging out with my friend, who happens to be my boss who happens to have a girlfriend, he doesn’t need to know I have cancer, and nobody needs to tell him, and we are NOT going to spend the NIGHT HERE!” She could not express enough how much they would not be sleeping together.  
“What a bore you are, Felicity Smoak.” She fell on the bed and watched her friend as she finished latching on her sandals.  
Her flowery dress made her look very girly, which she enjoyed. She’d had to act like an adult most of her life, robbed of her childhood and teenage years, she could at least pretend she wasn’t 24 years old already.   
There was a knock on the door and Margo shot out of the bed and ran towards the door, but didn’t manage to open it before Felicity ran after her and jumped on her back.   
“Don’t you dare!” She whispered into Margo’s ear. Margo sighed and took a step back, and when Felicity jumped off and snatched the door open before Felicity could attack her again.  
“HellO!” She practically shouted at the man standing at the door. He was tall and muscly but not too much, just perfect. He had short, brown hair, a shirt that clung to all the right muscles, and jeans.   
“Margo.” He half smiled.  
Margo stood on the other side, frozen. And yet, still not one tenth of the shock that Felicity felt ran through her at that instant.   
Because this wasn’t Oliver Queen, her childhood friend, this was Mattias Ashmore.   
Who was Mattias Ashmore?  
He was the love of her life. She technically hadn’t lied to Oliver when she said he was the only man in her life, Mattias was no longer a part of hers.   
They had only dated all through college and he’d proposed to her the day after she found out she had cancer, and ran out on him without explaining anything.   
Another reason she ran away to Starling City.   
“I’ll… go watch TV.” Margo said and started to back away.   
Just then she heard the elevator stopping on her floor.   
“No!” She pushed Mattias inside and closed the door just as Oliver walked out.   
“Did you just yell ‘no’?” He asked her, smiling and confused.   
She stuttered, “Yeah, I mean, I forgot my purse inside, but we won’t need it, hopefully? I don’t feel like getting it.” She lied.   
He held out his arm and she grabbed it like couples did ten billion years ago.   
“Well, now we can’t go drinking because they’ll card you.” He said sarcastically. She gasped and playfully slapped his hard biceps, instantly regretting it, wondering if Mattias was looking through the peep-hole.   
She quickly got on the elevator before it closed and continued the conversation. “Well, that’s awful, Mr. Queen, whatever shall you do to make up for leaving without saying goodbye?”   
His face lit up just then and seeing the thunderstorm brewing outside, he said, “I think I know just the thing.”  
>> \------- > >   
“Happy birthday Felicity!” Little Oliver had said. She sighed and mumbled, “Thank you.” It was her 7th birthday.  
“Where’s everybody?”  
“They forgot.”  
“How could they forget?!?” Oliver stomped his little feet, angry.  
“That’s okay. I took some books from the library to read.” She half smiled.   
Little Oliver looked around and his face lit up. “I have an idea!”   
He grabbed her hand and pulled her all the way to the playground behind his large home despite the storm brewing ahead.   
“If you beat me this time, you can get the tree house!” Oliver shouted and jumped on the swing, started swinging his feet. Felicity copied him, with much enthusiasm.   
“It’s mine!”  
ONE!”  
“TWO!”  
“THREE!” They both shouted as they jumped off the swing sets and lightning struck their precious tree house.  
>> \------ >>  
“If you beat me this time I’ll build you a tree house!” Oliver shouted as they crept up on the children’s playground.  
“Oliver!” She hushed loudly, looking around, embarrassed. “We’re too old for these games!” She giggled.   
“Oh, come on, Smoak!”  
“It’s not my birthday!”  
“Let this be me making up for those 17 birthdays I missed!” He jumped on the swing.   
He’d counted that fast?  
Felicity looked around. The streetlamps were burnt out, there were no kids or parents or anyone walking their dogs past the park, they were completely alone.  
“Alright, but just once.” She laughed and ran to the swing.   
She swung her legs back and forth and Oliver did the same. “Come on, Felicity! You can do better!” He shouted, swinging higher into the air.   
“I’m holding back for your sake, spoiled rich boy!” She laughed but strained herself to go higher than him. It shouldn’t be this hard, she was a lit lighter than he was.   
“ONE!” He shouted.   
“I’m not ready!”  
“TWO!”  
“OLIVER!”  
“THREE!” He jumped off and she jumped off as well. She went flying through the air, preparing herself for the hard hit on her side, like she used to fall when she was little.   
But the hard floor never came.   
Instead, she fell on something a lot softer. Something that moved.  
“Oh.” Oliver groaned beneath her. “You have to work on your aim now.” He cringed.   
“Oh, my God! Are you okay!?” She asked him, pushing her weight off of him and on her arms.   
“Yeah, you just left me breathless there for a second.” He inhaled slowly.  
“Yeah, I know, I have that effect on people sometimes.” She smiled, and he let out the breath he’d been holding in with a barking laugh.   
“Oh, I missed you,” He said.   
Felicity looked around. She had landed on him, yes, but her head was farther from the swing set than his, which was kind of awkward because that left her bosom, which didn’t exist last time they’d done this, right in front of his face.   
“I guess this means you owe me a tree house.” She whispered. He opened his eyes, looking at her bosom, face, around and shrugged.   
“I’ll get started right away, my ladyship.”   
She laughed and pushed herself to the side, lying next to him on recycled tire playground floor.   
“So…” He started. “Who was that guy you were hiding into your apartment?” He asked her after a while.  
“Hmm, you saw that, huh?”  
“Yep.” He looked at her sideways.  
She waited a while before looking back up at the clouds above.   
“I’ll talk about him when we talk about the island.” She finally said.   
“That’s not fair and we both know it.” He said.   
“Alright then, how about you being the vigilante?”  
He froze, and stared at her for a minute. “My lies were that bad?” He asked.  
“Hmm… You curl your left pinky when you lie.”  
He cringed. “I’d hoped you’d forgotten about that.”  
“Not likely, no.” She laughed at him.   
“Alright Felicity Smoak, you leave me no choice. We are not leaving this playground until we’ve caught up.” He said.  
“You think you can stop me?” He scoffed. “PLEASE. I’d beat you in a race any day.” She said, which was probably true. She ran cross country in high school.   
“You wanna bet?” He asked, leaning up on one elbow.   
“If you win you don’t need to build me a tree house.” She said and he raised one eyebrow.   
“You’re betting the tree house? It’s on.” He got up and helped her up. They stood next to each other, leaning forward.   
“Race you to the apartment?” She asked him.   
“That’s quite a distance, Smoak, I don’t want to take advantage of-”  
She was already running. Fast.   
“OK, well, you started off cheating!” He shouted, and then focused on speeding up, since she was way ahead of him already.  
They both touched the building wall at the same time five minutes later, both their faces red, out of breath and Felicity collapsed on the floor; Oliver just leaned on his knees.   
“Would you be so kind as to give me something to drink?” He asked her, without looking at her.   
He knew the man was upstairs, and he knew she was hiding hi, and he also knew she said there was no man in her life so if there was somebody that was bothering her, he’d have a look here and now.   
She hesitated before giving up. “Fine. But you’re keeping your mouth shut no matter what you hear and just- nod and smile. I’ll explain everything after he leaves.”  
She didn’t seem particularly happy about this.  
“Deal. And how about we call this a tie?” He added.   
“Fine. I want a rematch later.”  
“Don’t worry, you’ll get one.”


	8. Mattias Ashmore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This mystery man, who, oh, who could he possibly be??? :O

It started to drizzle as they made their way into the building. They rode the elevator up quietly, getting their heart beat to go back to normal.   
“Remember, whatever you hear, you zip it.” She murmured before she knocked on the door (she’d left her keys inside as well).   
Margo opened the door and saw Oliver and her eyes grew wide. “Is this…”  
“Yes.” Felicity grumbled, and walked past her inside. Oliver smiled, shook Margo’s hand, and followed Felicity into the kitchen.   
She ignored Mattias when he stood up from the couch as she walked by and stared at Oliver as he followed her.   
Margo went to stand next to Mattias and jabbed him in the ribs. “How much sex do you think they had? Their faces are all red and they’re out of breath.” She whispered to him.   
Felicity poured Oliver a glass of water and they both drank in silence in the kitchen, staring silently at each other.  
She sighed, refilled their cups and went to sit in the living room, on the couch across from where Margo and Mattias now stood.   
There was a moment of awkward silence.  
A lot of moment, or one really long moment, actually.   
“So, you’re with Felicity?” Mattias asked Oliver.   
Oliver just smiled at him, looked at Felicity and didn’t say a word.   
“Mattias, what are you doing here?” She asked.   
Mattias rubbed his hands together, nervous, looking between Margo, Oliver and Felicity.  
“I-”  
“Wait! Can you guys… give us some space?” She looked at Oliver and Margo, who looked disappointed, but solemnly got up and went to the kitchen.   
“I want an explanation.”  
“Mattias, I-”  
“No, it’s my turn. I came all the way over here to say something and damn it, I’ll get it out before you run out in me again. I told everyone in my family and all our friends that I was proposing. I told our neighbors and our teachers. And then, when I asked you, down on one knee with a shit load of roses all around me with candles everywhere, you ran away. I got home and all your things were gone. So was your phone. No note, no explanation, and I was left, like an idiot, to explain to everyone that you ran away when I asked you to marry me.” He let it all out in one big breath and she flinched.   
“I am so sorry.” She whispered.   
“Sorry? You’re sorry?! Oh, well, it’s all better now, isn’t it?” He was angry, but she could see the pink crawling all over his eyes.   
“Mattias. I had just received some really bad news the day before. The day you asked me, I was planning to break up with you because this is a part of my life I can’t share with you, and if I can’t stick by you through the good and the bad then I definitely can’t marry you.” She said quietly.  
“What news? You’re not pregnant, are you?” He eyed her belly.   
“Oh, God, no.” She shook her head. Thank God, she thought. “My point is, if we’d been meant for each other, I would have told you as soon as I found out but I didn’t.”   
“Felicity, it can’t be that bad, whatever it is, I can handle it.” He said.   
No, he really couldn’t, she thought. He’d lost both his parents and a younger brother to cancer in the past two years. He really wouldn’t handle this very well. He barely handled it when she was there to help him through it. Who would help him if she was the sick one?  
She sighed, and saw no other option other than to rip it like a band aid.   
“I’m in love with him. I ran away with him. I’m married to him, we live here, together. Mattias. Please go, and please… Don’t come back.” Her voice broke as she spoke the last part. She stood and waited for him to process this information.   
Realization hit his eyes and he stood, sobering up. “Okay.” He murmured and got up. Without looking at Margo or Oliver, he walked out of the apartment and closed the door behind him.  
The apartment was at a stand-still until she heard the elevator doors close.   
Felicity turned to glare at Margo.  
“Felicity, I am so sorry, I thought-” She started but Felicity already cut her off.   
“You did this! You put me through this again! It’s not enough that I had to do it once? I had to do it twice?!”  
“I thought you’d miss him! I thought, since you’re getting better you could tell him now! He deserves to know!”  
“Get out.”  
“Felicity, you don’t mean it, I’m sorry I told him where you lived, I-”  
“Get. Out. NOW.” Felicity hushed the words through clenched teeth with so much power that Margo stopped talking. She went into her bedroom, zipped up her suitcase, grabbed her purse and walked out of the apartment as well, locking the door behind her.  
Felicity stood in an empty living room for the three seconds it took Oliver to walk to her. He wrapped his arms around her, without asking for an explanation, and she let herself lean into his warmth.   
Truth was, she DID miss Mattias; she missed him more than anything else in the world. He was a gentleman, he was nice and smart and considered by any woman the whole package. But faith didn’t want them together and it had turned and twisted the tables drastically to make a point.   
But right now, melting into Oliver’s embrace, she remembered all the times she was bullied and he went to punch the other kid and ran back to hold her the same way he did now.   
She felt safe and… there was something else but she couldn’t put her finger on it.   
When he felt her give in to his embrace rather than push him away like she did to the other two, he picked her up by her back and the back of her knees, and cradled her into her bed.   
He pulled the comforter over her, turned the fan on, and took her shoes off.   
He then took his own shoes off, got under the covers and curled around her. That way she’d know she wasn’t alone.   
Before she drifted off into sleep after sobbing for hours without hearing any complaint form Oliver, she found the words she couldn’t find before.  
She felt at home.


	9. For the sake of not ruining a perfectly good movie ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olicity spends some quality time together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am SO SORRY i haven't updated the chapters, I've been sick, in the process of moving on my own for the first time, it's all a big mess. Anyways, I hope you like the new chapter, I'm working on the next one!

She woke up to the smell of delicious bacon coming from the kitchen.   
“Hmm.” She grinned and stood up, heading for the source of the smell.   
“Oliver?”  
She looked around but he was nowhere to be found. In the kitchen she found a plate of eggs with bacon and a cup of fresh coffee waiting for her and a note next to it.   
“I had a little project to get a head start on, come over to my place after you’ve had the best breakfast in your life ;p”  
She chuckled and took the plate to her to the couch. Only when she was half way through her meal did she remember what had happened last night.  
It had been the kind of drama she’d been trying to avoid the whole time. Not only did she have to hold herself back so she wouldn’t go crawling back to Mattias, but she had to technically, break up with him all over again. 

She took a deep breath so she wouldn't cry. Tears would spoil the perfectly good breakfast. She thought about Margo. She was trying to help, but it wasn’t up to her what Felicity did or didn't do. She’d grown up without a mother, she’d deal without one now. 

She got dressed and took a cab to the Queen Mansion. She was feeling weak on her knees and didn’t think driving there would be a good idea.   
Once she got in Raisa directed her towards the back of his home. 

At first she didn’t recognize him. In fact, she didn’t recognize him at second or third or fourth either. She kept gaping at this man the entire time she was supposed to be looking for Oliver. 

Because this man had climbed an enormous oak and was currently nailing down a bed of wood to turn into a pretty damned decent floor. She stood there on the grass, covering her eyes from the sun as this man grunted over and over, hitting that nails, and wiping the sweat from his eyes, and his glistening skin. She pressed her legs together and hummed, which caused this man to stop what he was doing and notice her. 

“Felicity!”  
“Oliver? Is that you?”   
Oliver jumped off the tree and hugged her, rubbing off his sweat on her. “Ugh, Oliver, I just showered.” She complained, not truly complaining.   
“What are you doing?” She asked him, pointing at the tree.   
“Fel, I owe you a tree house, and I. am building you. A damned. Great. Tree house.” He said and grinned.   
She stood there speechless for a couple of seconds. “You- my tree house?” She could hardly believe it. Oliver Queen, her childhood bestie, actually building her tree house. It might have been the first time in her life someone kept true to their promise to her. Not to mention she almost NEVER got anything she wanted. She could almost cry.   
She swung her arms around his sweaty neck and pulled him close. “Thank you, Oliver Queen.”  
He wrapped his arms around her. “Don’t thank me just yet, thank me when it’s done.” He whispered back to her.   
“You could help though, instead of sitting on your ass watching me do all the work.” He said, lightening the mood.   
“Captain, my captain.” She saluted him. “Where do you want me?” she asked.  
“On top.”  
“What?”  
“Of the tree- I- I meant on top of the tree, so that you can pass me the nails.” She stuttered, and turned around, suddenly captivated by counting the nails he needed.   
“Aha, okay, sure.” She rolled her eyes and started climbing the rope pullie system to the top branch. They most of the morning in the blasting sun’s heat on the tree nailing down the floor and the walls. 

“You know,” Felicity said later in the afternoon, “This is pretty big for the tree house I imagined.”   
“Because you never imagine having what you deserve.” He answered.   
She was momentarily confused about his words and was about to ask him what he meant when Raisa called them down to eat lunch just like when they were little.   
“Race you?” Whispered child Oliver.   
“You betcha.” She giggled and they both ran down the tree. Oliver sprinted forward without a glance back, but Felicity had more trouble running now.   
She panted loudly, and slowed to a jog, and eventually stopped altogether and held herself up by her hands on her knees, trying to breathe.   
As she stood there, the doctor’s words creeped unwanted across her memory. 

‘You need to tell me right away if you notice any of the symptoms coming back. Any fatigue, bleeding, fever, pain. This is all vital in helping you get better.’

“Felicity!” Was she dreaming again?  
“FELICITY!” this was too loud to be a dream.  
“WAKE UP!” Someone was hurting her shoulders. They hurt.   
“Ow.” She murmured, and squinted. The sun was still blaring just above her.   
“Oh, thank God, she’s alive!” Oliver shouted. He pulled her up and pressed her against his chest.   
“You fainted, I promise you I won’t try to exert you like that again.” She felt her heart drop.  
“It’s not because I ran,” she lied. “I’m just very delicate lately.” She pulled herself up to a sitting position on the grass. They were still alone outside.  
“How long was I out?” she asked him.  
“I don’t know, maybe a minute? You scared the fuck out of me, Felicity.” He was looking intently into her eyes.   
“I’ll be fine.” She smiled weakly. “As soon as I’m out of these stinky lothes and far away from the ones you’re wearing now.” She joked.  
He smiled. “Fine.” 

He led the way to the house and gave her some of his clothes for her to wear when they put her clothes to wash and dry. They were some very baggy sweat pants while she chose to ignore because the huge shirt he’d given her more than covered everything that needed covering. It was like being in a church dress.   
She stepped into the shower and spit out all the blood she knew would come after the fainting. She washed out the grass from her hair and scrubbed her ski lightly so the bruises wouldn’t come back.

She walked to the kitchen in Oliver’s shirt and Raisa was setting the table.   
“Raisa, you can go, don’t worry!” She told her.  
“But Darling-”  
“It’s the weekend, it’s past noon, it’s you time off from the queens, go enjoy it.” Felicity winked at her, and Raisa grinned as she took the apron off and made her way out of the kitchen. 

She finished setting up the food on the kitchen counter by the time Oliver came downstairs.  
“Are we eating- Oh, my- What happened to the- the pants?” Oliver stopped where he was, staring at Felicity’s legs.   
“Um, I didn't want them.” She said, looking down. If Mr. Queen were here she’d be ashamed, but the only people in the grand house who could possibly see her were Oliver, Raisa, his mother and sister.   
“No, go put something on.” He covered his eyes.   
“Are you kidding me? Oliver!”  
“Put something on or I’m not eating with you!” He shouted, his eyes shut tightly.   
She walked behind him quietly.   
“Are you nervous, Oliver Queen?” She teased him. “You don’t have to hide it, I’ve seen you like this before.”   
Oliver opened his mouth to talk, but only strange sounds came out, not able to articulate sounds into words and words into sentences.   
“Articulate, are we?” She asked, and then skipped her way to the counter, grabbing a seat, and her fork.   
“Are you coming?” She asked.   
‘Almost did’ he felt like saying out loud, but instead he went with, “Yeah.” He made sure to walk close to the counter and sat across from her rather than next to her.   
“Raisa’s cooking just gets better and better as time goes by.” Felicity said in between bites of pasta.  
“Don’t let her hear you talking about time, she feels old.” He chuckled.   
“But we’re not that old! We’re still young, in the prime of our youths, we can still do wild and reckless things!” She said, excitedly.   
All he could think about with her wearing his shirt like that was all the wild and reckless things he could do with her right then and there.   
He shook those thoughts violently out of his head, somewhat, and laughed. “Just wait, soon you’ll get married, have kids, and then you’ll really feel old.” He joked.  
Her smiled weakened somewhat.   
“What?” He asked her.   
“Well… I won’t actually have kids.” She said.   
“What? What do you mean you won’t have kids. That was your entire plan when you were little.”  
“Well, we’re not little anymore, Oliver. We grew up. And things don’t always work out the way you want them to.”  
“Meaning?”  
“My doctor told me I won’t be able to have any kids.” She finally said. She didn’t specify that it was her oncology doctor because, oh! By the way! I have cancer buddy, now let’s go finish that tree house before I’m dead!  
Oliver was quiet for a long time, not sure of what to say to her. He’d never had to have this conversation, first of all, it would have been awkward had it been anyone except her. But this WAS Felicity, his best friend, who heard him out and took so much weight off his shoulders and didn’t judge him.  
He put one hand on top of hers.   
“If you need anything, anything at all, you know I’m here for you, right? If you need a shoulder, or money, or a friendly ear, anything at all, Felicity Smoak, I’ll always be here for you.”  
Oh, come onnn, she thought. He opened himself up for that one.   
“How about some friendly sperm?” she asked.  
His face didn’t twitch, he froze for a couple of seconds, cleared his throat, swallowed, and then said with a raspy voice.  
“Whatever you want. Whenever. Wherever.” And he smiled sideways. Her favorite smile.  
“You truly are my best friend, Oliver.” She laughed at him.  
“Yes I am! And because I know you so well, and you didn’t change one bit, I have the movie ‘Tangled’ in the blue-ray already.”  
“But you HATE Disney!” She shouted, taking the last bite into her mouth and jumping off her seat excitedly.   
“I know! I’m the best! Ever!” He walked in front of her so not to have to look as she walked in front of him because he knew he couldn’t do much to hide anything sitting next to her on the couch. Unless…   
“I’m getting us some comforters.”   
He came back with a huge comforter from th guest bedroom and sat on the other side as far from her as possible, but as soon as the movie started, she hoped and plopped down resting her back on his chest.  
Oh, Lord, give me the strength- no, not strength, the patience, the wisdom, the- grannies, dead puppies, bullies, grannies, dead puppies, the island.  
That last one did it for him.  
He sat quietly thinking about the island as she watched the movie. Towards the end she said, “You should watch this movie with Sarah.”  
He was silent for a while.  
“Actually… Sarah and I decided to take a break.” She froze and turned to see his face.   
“It wasn’t because of me, was it? She asked, her eyes wide.   
He considered lying to her. “She didn’t agree with us being so close. She was being unreasonable, and we had several disagreements before that anyways.” He only lied towards the end.   
She leaned back against him. “I’m sorry.”  
“It’s okay. He whispered, and kissed her hair. “I think I’d rather have you around anyways.”  
She wondered if she should tell him now that she was sick. But she really didn’t want to ruin the rest of the movie.


	10. The cat’s out of the bag. Well, not literally a cat, a cat could be very uncomfortable in a bag and if it’s plastic then it would probably claw its way out.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She finds out Oliver's the vigilante!

That afternoon they’d finished the movie and hung out fixing the tree house until Oliver drove her home at the end of the night. It had been perfect, Felicity thought, recalling the afternoon. Completely innocent.   
She was parking her car in the company parking lot when she saw the familiar figure of her best friend standing by the door, looking around nervously, as if a serial killer were about to pounce on her.   
She sighed, grabbed her bag, locked the car and made her way to Margo.   
“Hey.” Margo whispered, twisting her fingers around and shifting weight from one foot to the other.   
“Hey.” Felicity stopped in front of Margo.   
“I’m sorry.” Margo said after a moment of silence.   
Felicity shook her head, trying to find the words she meant rather than the series of not-so-nice things she really wanted to say.   
“I understand.” She finally said. Margo half smiled and threw herself at Felicity, hugging her.   
“I just wanted to make things right before I left.” Margo said.  
“You’re leaving?” She asked. She shouldn’t have been surprised, she did tell her to get out in her loud voice after all.  
“Yeah. Just let me know when… you’re free, when you have time off work and I’ll come visit you, or vice versa, whichever.” She smiled.   
The girls said their goodbyes, in silent agreement not to mention the mishap.   
Felicity made her way up to her office and started working on the stat press infomercial Mrs. Queen had asked her to finish. Apparently Joe from the third floor screwed it up completely.   
Around noon, right before she took her lunch break her supervisor walked in her office.  
“Smoak?”  
She looked up.  
“Mr. Queen needs you to re-schedule his speech from tonight to sometime next week. Apparently he’s feeling sick and won’t be able to speak at the gala.” He said, and without waiting for an answer, turned around and walked out.   
Sick? Oliver was NOT sick. She rescheduled his speech, sending a notice to all guests and took her lunch.  
She clocked and headed towards the bakery two blocks down the road. Maybe if she went behind the second building she’d get there faster? She was already exhausted in her heels, and headed down the small stretch making a mental note to stop wearing heels and also to buy a pepper spray if she was going to take this route to get to the bakery often.   
It was a new level of sketchy; there was trash on the floor, the dark shadows and the extremely disgusting dumps filled to the rim with trash bags, and some stains she was almost sure was blood.   
As she walked by another dark spot on the asphalt she realized this wasn’t dry. This was fresh blood! She stopped and stared at it and then heard a noise somewhere behind her. She took out her small army knife, back against the shadow of the wall.   
She looked at one end of the stretch and it was empty. She sneaked a look from behind the dumpster and saw two men fighting. It wasn’t like a normal fight, these men aren’t just throwing punches. They were skillfully kicking each other with brute force every chance they got and they were the only ones on the street.   
One of them was wearing a dark green suit she immediately recognized as the vigilante. The other was dressed in all black. He was taller and bigger. She suddenly felt eager to help the vigilante and with her fingers, trembling, she threw her knife right at the man in black.   
The knife landed in his calf, to her great relief and luck. The man, in shock, grabbed his bow and struck the vigilante across the face, making him fall on the floor like a rag doll and giving the man in black time to make his slow escape, limping away, but not before giving Felicity a dirty look, the police sirens getting closer in the distance.  
She knew she was already a dead ‘man’ walking form the cancer, but this man’s look just re-assured her that if the cancer didn’t kill her soon, he would.   
She ran to the vigilante and shook him awake.   
“Get up! I can’t carry your dead weight! The police is coming!”  
She’d be damned if she didn’t get him out of here. This man had saved so many people, she wasn’t about to let the police put him away.   
He seemed to come to for a moment.   
“F-”  
“Don’t talk! The less I know the better, if they catch me I don’t want to lie.” She whispered. She pushed him up to lean on her shoulders.   
She took a few steps before ditching her heels, praying there wouldn’t be any broken glass on the asphalt, and took the man into the parking garage hiding in the shadows and between cars until she reached her own car.   
She pushed him onto the back seat and got in the driver’s seat.   
“Felicity” He gasped in a raspy voice and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She turned around as he tried to sit.   
“NO!” She pushed him back down. Looking around frantically she shoved a comforter she’d taken to the cleaners on top of him and drove out of the garage as quickly as she could.  
How did this man know her name? She hyperventilated as she drove out.   
“Verdant.” He said.   
“You want me to take you to a club?! You must have hit your head harder than I thought.” She shook her head.   
“Felicity. Take me to Verdant, nowhere else. Promise me.” His voice kept getting weaker with every word he said.  
“Okay.” She murmured, and made a sharp turn.   
She made it to the club and parked in the back, where it was isolated and she helped him stumble into the back door.   
“Oh, God, we’re breaking and entering into my friend’s club, he’s going to kill me. Oh my God, Oliver is going to kill me!” She shrieked, pushing him onto a stool and began pacing back and forth.   
“Felicity-”  
“No! You’re not allowed to talk! I have to call Oliver!” She took out her phone and speed dialed Oliver’s number.   
She heard it ringing somewhere inside.   
“Oh God, he’s here.”  
She was about to run into his office upstairs when the vigilante wrapped his arms around her entire torso, strapping her arms to her sides.   
“Felicity. I need you to calm down.” He said.   
“Calming down right his second is 99 percent impossible.” She responded.   
“I am going to let you go, but you need to listen to me, okay?”  
She thought about this for a moment before deciding it was safe.   
“Okay.” She whimpered.  
He let go of her, and let her turn around slowly. He sighed, seeing the fear in her eyes and pulled back the hood and the mask.  
At first she didn’t seem all that surprised, as if she’d known all along, but as she realized the meaning of it all a light bulb went off in her head and she gasped.   
“Oliver, you’re bleeding!” she shouted, and only then, when she said it, did he realize the sharp stabbing pain in his abdomen. He almost wished she hadn’t said anything.   
“Shit” He said, and headed downstairs. She followed him, still barefoot, and confused.   
“Wow, it all makes sense now. You’re always late for meetings, you cancel galas, you’re always bruised, you miss work and then I hear you got beat up because you have a black eye. I mean, you REALLY get beat up. Who was that man back there?” She asked.   
He decoded the door and limped downstairs.   
“Oh, my God.” He heard Felicity whisper more to herself than to him.   
“I don’t think you want to know that.” He said.  
She watched as he set down his bow and arrows and yanked the jacket off.  
She stared at his body. It was covered in scars and he was bleeding from his side, yes, but never in a hundred years had she imagined he looked THIS good.  
“I got them on the island.” Oliver said after a while, noticing she was still staring at him.   
“What?” She seemed to be coming out of a trance.  
“The scars.” He squinted his eyes at her.  
“Oh. Yeah, I figured.” She shrugged and kept looking at his abs shamelessly.   
“Aren’t you gonna ask how I got them?” He inquired.   
“I know when you’re ready you’ll tell me yourself.”  
Her answer made him smile. “This is why I love you, Felicity Smoak.” He whispered so low she wouldn’t hear him.   
The arrow had only grazed him, so the wound was superficial, although he was having a hard time putting the gauze on top properly because of the angle.   
“Here, let me help you.” Felicity walked over to him and placed the strip over the nasty-looking gash that would probably add one more scar to his collection.   
“Your hands are shaking.” Oliver noticed. “And you’re barefoot.”  
Was his voice getting fuzzy?  
Felicity saw the room turn sideways and then go black. 

 

Oliver saw her eyes getting fuzzy, wandering around the room before rolling back into her head and caught her before she hit the ground, which severely twisted his fresh wound. Wincing he pulled her back up and on the table.   
It was the second time she fainted, and that was only when she was around him. Once was bad luck, twice in a span of three days was bad news.   
He put a pad of alcohol under her nose for a while, prompting her to wake up.   
“Felicity?” He whispered her name over and over, until her eyes fluttered open again. “You okay?” He asked her.   
“Sorry. I keep doing this to you.” She whispered, sitting up.  
“You didn’t answer my question.” He said.   
“How perceptive. I guess the vigilante does need to be perceptive, huh?” She joked, looking around the room.  
“Fel-”  
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. You should probably shower though, you smell like that alley.” She smiled.   
“I’ll be right back.” He placed his hand on her shoulder, and walked to the bathroom near the back of the basement.   
…  
When he came out of the bathroom, shirtless and hair dripping, he saw her laying down on the cot he sometimes used as a bed. She was curled up and shivering. He sighed, pulled a T-Shirt out of his duffel bag and put it on.   
He walked to her, put one arm behind her knees, another behind her back and pulled her as close to his chest as he could, until her head fell onto his shoulder.   
“Oliver,” She whispered, but she wasn’t awake.  
“Don’t worry. I got you.” He told her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys like it!  
> I finished moving, classes start tomorrow so I've been super stressed, but I'll do my best to keep writing it!   
> Let me know what you guys like or don't like, i love feedback!


	11. Oliver finds out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OLIVER FINDS OUT YAY! NAay?

He took her to the hospital. He didn’t know what else to do, this was beyond his abilities.   
He carried her to the front desk. “I need help. NOW, she fainted twice, I don’t know-”  
“Ms. Smoak?”  
The voice came from down the hall. It was a nurse rolling another patient out. Oliver didn’t get a chance to speak. The nurse gave her patient to a nurse standing by and ran to Felicity.  
“Beth! I need a room for Felicity Smoak STAT! George, get the IV! And Susan, get me her chart!”  
All of these people scattered in a matter of seconds. Someone rushed forward and he laid her down on a bed, and followed as they rolled her to the room.   
They quickly took her blood pressure, temperature, took some blood for testing, inserted the IV, and measured her pulse.   
“Has she exerted herself as of late?” The nurse asked him. “I… I don’t know, I guess…” He remembered the racing. “Yes, she has.”  
The nurse shook her head and murmured, “She knows she’s not allowed, not in her fragile state.”  
“Are you immediate family?”  
“Wha-”  
“Then get out. You’re not allowed to be here now. You can come in when she’s awake and if she asks for you.”  
He suddenly found a door shut between him and Felicity. She looked so weak on that bed. So exposed. So vunurable. He swallowed a lump in his throat and sat in the hall for what seemed like ages.   
A while later a male nurse he hadn’t noticed before exited the room.  
“Hey! How is she?” He asked the nurse.  
“She’ll be alright. She just experiences nausea and temporary loss of consciousness because her body is still weak after the chemo. But she’ll be better soon.”  
“Chemo?” Olive stuttered.  
The nurse’s eyes widened and he stuttered excuses as he paced away quickly.   
Just then the first nurse opened the door. “She’s asking for you. She won’t stay up much, I gave her a sedative to calm her down. NO EXERTIONS.” And she walked away.  
He took a deep breath and walked through the doors.  
She’d been changed. She was now wearing a hospital gown. That damned thing shouldn’t be on her.   
“Hey champion.” She smiled weakly.  
“You have…”  
“Cancer? Yes. I’m pretty sure.” She half laughed.   
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked, realizing now he could have been protecting her instead of making her worse.   
“I only felt alive when I was with you. You treated me like you always did. You challenge me. You make me happy.” She smiled.   
“Felicity, look at you! I shouldn’t have let this happen, I-”  
“Shut up, Oliver. Everyone treats me as if I were made of glass. Everyone makes me feel like an outsider. Everyone except you. Thank you. I mean, even if I die tonight, I had the best time of my life with you.”   
“Don’t EVER say that.” He sat on the bed next to her and held her hand. “You will never die, Felicity Smoak. You’re my best friend, you’re not allowed.”  
Felicity moved her lips as if to speak, but couldn’t find the strength, her eyes drooped and she just smiled. She squeezed his hand right before falling asleep.  
>>> \------ >   
She opened her eyes feeling like she’d been charged all night long. She took a deep breath, and looked around the room. Oliver was lying his head on the bed, still holding her hand, fast asleep.   
“Hey!” She smacked his head. “Bring me a burger!”  
“Hmm?” He groaned, getting up.  
“Burger!” she demanded.   
His eyes cleared up and he finally saw her awake. His smile stretched from ear to ear.   
“You’re awake.”  
“And hungry.”  
“Alright, alright, I’ll be back. Don’t go anywhere.”   
He walked out of the room and Felicity pressed the button. A couple seconds later Jackie came in. “Well, well! Look who’s awake! Morning sleeping Beauty!” She took out all the needles from Felicity’s arms.   
“Who’s that hunk who brought you here? He hasn’t left your side all night and all day! He’s not in the bathroom, right?” She suddenly looked at the bathroom door.  
“No, you’re safe, ha, he’s my best friend.” Felicity answered. Jackie handed her her clothes.   
“Thanks.”  
“He found out last night?” Jackie asked.   
“Umm… We haven’t really talked about it, but yes.”  
“Well, I took some of your blood for testing. Results should be back tomorrow. I’ll call you and let you know but it was most probably an iron deficiency.” Jackie speculated.   
“This time? Yes. You don’t look as ugly as you normally do.”  
“Thanks.” Felicity said sarcastically, putting on her shoes.   
“And you might wanna do something with that hair of yours too.” Jackie winked and left the room.   
Felicity touched her head and felt her hair static. She got up slowly and made her way to the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth and put her hair up in a neat pony tail just as Oliver came back.   
“Food’s here!” He announced. Seeing her by the bathroom he freaked out. “Can you walk!?” He rushed to her side but froze once he saw the look in her eyes.   
“Alright. Okay. I can do normal…” He backed away slowly and sat on the bed.  
“You coming slow poke?” He added, unwrapping his own burger.   
They ate in silence and when they were done they looked at each other before she spoke.   
“This is why I left Mattias. He would never be able to handle it.” She explained.   
“Then why did Margo bring him back?” He asked.  
“She got too excited… Dr. Edmunds said I might be going into remission. I’m not cured, but remission is a whole lot better than puking blood all the time.” She shrugged.   
“Hmm… I think you should ask her to come back. I like her, she takes care of you.”  
“So do you.”  
“Oh, don’t worry, you aren’t leaving my sight for the next 40 years.” He chuckled.   
“Promise?” She teased him, and in the most serious voice, with his most sincere facial expression, he whispered, “Cross my heart and hope to die.”   
They stayed looking at each other for a while, a while too long to be normal, and the palm of his hand pressed against her cheek, and her face pressing deeper into his caress.   
He didn’t realize how close they’d gotten until both their lashes brushed against each other.   
She was the one who closed the distance between them. Her lips pressed lightly against his at first. She savored the feel of his lips, how gentle they were and gasped in his breath.   
Her lips parted slightly and he pulled her closer to kiss her better.   
When she did pull away to breathe, they were both flushed and their lips slightly swollen.   
“Mmm, Oliver Queen. You shouldn’t have done that.” She whispered slightly.  
“I know. I don’t regret it though.” He said, standing up. “You ready to head out?” He asked her.   
“Where are we going?”   
“Wherever you want.”  
“The foundry.”  
“No.”  
“But you said-” She started, but Oliver cut her off.  
“I will won’t have you involved in my mess, Smoak.”  
“Well, that’s really too bad because you really don’t have a choice.” She walked past him to check out.  
“It’s dangerous.”  
“I think I can take care of myself.”  
“I’d rather you not.” He insisted, whispering in her ear.  
“Oliver!” She whisper shouted at him, “We’re going to the foundry! The 1980s called, they want their computer security system back!”  
And when she made up her mind, what choice did he have, really? The entire time he drove he was thinking about the kiss. When she’d said he shouldn’t have done that, was that meaning she’d want to kiss him all the time or that he really shouldn’t have done it? She’d kissed him back. Hadn’t she? He was doubting himself more than ever by the time he parked at the club.   
“When you said-” He started.  
“Not now. I’m working.” She smiled and walked straight to the foundry, getting the password correct on the first time. He was going to ask how she knew but he’s much rather not know.   
It took her a couple hours of working while Oliver practiced his aim out of boredom, and then worked on the salmon ladder (he’d been working on doing 30 turns).   
“There’s a robbery on third and Isleworth.” She said suddenly.   
“You’ve been monitoring my systems?” He asked.  
“Are you gonna argue or change?” She asked, and after deliberating a second, she turned towards his suit, still scratched where he was injured last time.   
“We need to talk soon, Felicity.” He said.  
“Wait!” She walked to him, placing the ear piece in and said, “We can talk the entire time, of you want.” She smiled, and pushed him out the door.   
Three seconds later she heard his bike speed down the road.   
“They’re getting away, make a right.” She said, and saw his tracker make a right on the computer screen.   
“Make a left here and another one… right now.” She felt the butterflies in her stomach as he got closer.   
On the streets, Oliver raced and made sharp turns when she told him.   
“Do you wanna have dinner with me?” He asked.   
“Oliver… Left! Sorry, sorry, I was… distracted, I’d rather you think this through before youask me anything. Round about.”  
“Why would I think anything through?” He asked, following the round about.   
“I’m a sick girl. Noody wants to date the sick girl.”  
“You’re being self-deprecating and I don’t like it. You’re smart and funny and gorgeous. Any guy would be lucky to take you to dinner. Which is what I’m asking you. Do you want to join me for dinner?”  
“You’re there.”  
Oliver saw the truck right as she said those words. He skidded to a stop and brought out his arrows. He shot both of the back wheels of the vehicle, and both legs of the three men that came out of the back, and the driver on the thigh as he jumped out.   
“I’m done here.” Oliver said through the ear piece and she saw the bike turn around before the cops got there. “Soo… Will you?”  
She sighed, relaxing in her seat for now because he didn’t get hurt, which probably almost never happened.   
“Okay, fine, I’ll have dinner with you. But if it doesn’t feel right, we’re going back to being just best friends… I don’t want to lose you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!!!


	12. First date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go out on their first... date? Not at all what she expected!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felicity's outfit for their first date: Hope you like it!  
> http://arrowfelicity.tumblr.com/post/97245969226/felicitys-outfit-in-my-fanfic-promise-in-ao3

She looked at the mirror long and hard for the 15th time that night.   
She’d gone from wearing a sweater (too casual) to wearing jeans and blouse (not comfortable) to wearing several other outfits that made her butt look too big, or that showed the surgery scars, or that did not fit her breasts well anymore, since she’d gained weight since chemo ended.   
She sighed, and patted her new dress, finally thinking this one would be… an okay choice for a date with him.  
If he chose to take them somewhere fancy she’d be okay, if it was just a movie and dinner, she’d be okay. She just prayed to God he wouldn’t take her to the club, that dress would NOT fit in there.  
Should she eat first? She shook her head, what an idiot, of course not, it’d be dinner.   
But not just any dinner. Dinner with Oliver Queen.  
It had been years since she’d wanted to dress up like this, the last time Mattias had asked her to-  
She drifted her thought back to Oliver. Oliver was right there next to her. Knowing she had cancer, she was sick, and still stood next to her, even invited her to dinner; he was strong.   
Smiling, she put on her heels, and put her hair up in a messy kind of bun of curls, her red lipstick, and her contacts.   
She was just about done when he knocked on the door.   
“Coming!” She shouted, and walked to the door.   
Oliver stood there, a bouquet of roses in hand, gaping at her. She could almost literally see his pupils dilate.   
“Are those… for me?” She asked, and he stopped gapping like a 16 year old boy.   
“Wha- yes, I mean, yes, they are… Felicity, you look… Astounding.” He finally said.  
Felicity smiled, content with her choice of wardrobe and went to put the flowers in a vase.   
“Ready?” He asked her.   
“Do we have an appointment?” She teased him. He extended his arm out to her as she walked towards him and they walked hand in hand out of the apartment building and into the limousine that awaited them outside.  
She laughed, and shook her head.  
“What?” Oliver asked, looking down at her.   
“It’s just… a limousine. I don’t know why I’d expect any less form you, but I was still surprised.” She giggled, and quickly stifled it. She was Felicity Smoak, she didn’t giggle, or fraternize with girls who did.  
Oliver seemed pleased with himself as well.  
They were comfortable together. The sense of anxiety was no longer there, it was dissipated, disappeared, ceased to exist, and now there was only a sensation of content, childish happiness surrounding the two of them ad she wondered if he noticed it as much as she did.   
A few minutes later the driver opened the door for her and they stepped out into the front of none other than the ‘Principessa.’ Only the most expensive, luxurious, romantic hotel that nobody can get into without a six month appointment.   
“Woah, Oliver, how did you-” But she really saw no sense in finishing the question. He smiled at her, taking her hand in his and walked her inside.   
“Evening Mr. Queen, your table is this way, please follow me.” A waiter magically appeared and led the way.  
They walked through a crowded area and then a less crowded, dimmer room where a sole table waited for them. He pulled out the chair for her, and sat across from her.   
“Any drinks?” The waiter asked, leaning down to show her cleavage just a tad too much.  
“Just water for me” Oliver didn’t even glance at her.   
“Um, do you have raspberry tea?” Felicity asked. It was probable this waitress made more money than she did.  
“I’ll be right back with your drinks.” She said, and walked out.   
Both of them stared at each other for a second, stifling laughter, until Oliver couldn’t stand the curiosity any longer.   
“What are you thinking about?” He asked.  
“How weird this is. I mean, I’ve known you all my life, but at the same time you’ve been away for most of it, and then suddenly we find each other and it’s like we were never apart. Tell me stories from when I wasn’t there, I want to know more about you.”  
“You might not like all you hear.”  
“I’ll take my chances.”  
“Umm... okay… One time Tommy and I were skiing and, it was out first time, but our instructor was this really hot girl, and Tommy was drooling all over her, so we’re standing right on the edge, about to go down and I pushed him while she wasn’t looking and down he goes, averting all the obstacles like a pro! He just had beginner’s luck, but he did get a date with the instructor, so I guess it was worth it.” He laughed, remembering.   
“You are an evil best friend.” She said, laughing.   
“How about you?” He asked, “Tell me a funny story about your life.”  
She had to think long and hard for this one. In the meantime the drinks arrived, and they ordered their food. Oliver ordered a fettuccini alfredo and Felicity ordered a black bean burger because, honestly, she’d been craving it for days now.  
She was sipping on her drink when she thought of me.  
“I was taking the SAT with Margo-”  
“Is this supposed to be fun?”  
“Oh, shut up and listen. We were taking the SAT and towards the end she was falling asleep at the desk in front of me, so I kicked her chair, and the teacher, a bitch actually, came and told her that is she didn’t get her act together she’d fail the test. So during break I took an empty scantron when the teacher was in the bathroom, wrote her name down as though she were a student and made literal Christmas trees with the bubbles when I was done with the last section. And then I turned it in.”  
“Felicity! What a hard criminal you are!” He mocked her as she laughed.   
“Believe it or not, it was the most badass thing I ever did.”  
“No. The most badass thing you ever did was get a degree, move to Starling City, and beat cancer.” He said in a serious tone now.   
“I haven’t beat cancer yet.” She corrected him.  
“YET.” He emphasized.   
The waiter arrived with their food. Her mouth was already watering. She took that burger without a second thought and took a huge bite.  
“OhmyGod, Oliver.” She swallowed. “This is a food-gasm. You need to try this.” She said, and shoved the burger in his face.  
He took a bite and his eyes got big.   
“Bring one of those instead.” He told the waitress as she left.   
“Oh, my God. Isn’t it so good?” She asked, shaking her head as she took another bite. “No wonder it’s literally impossible to get in here. How DID you get in here, anyways?”  
“The owner owed me a favor.”  
“Mmm… Of course he did.”  
By the time they were done with their meal they were both content and full.  
Oliver paid the check in cash and they made their way out hand in hand.  
“Are you taking me home now?” She asked, “I wanna go to bed.”  
Oliver turned his head slowly in her direction and raised one eyebrow.   
“Ooh! I didn’t mean it like that, well, yeah, but not right now, and not- I mean, I was- Never mind. Where to now?” She felt her face go from white to pink to purple and settle back again at pink that spread to the tip of her ears.   
Oliver leaned down, his lips whispering to her ear through the tangled hair, a smirk on his face,  
“I wouldn’t mind taking you home, if you want.”   
Felicity gasped and held her breath, pressed her knees together and looked away to stop the temptation to lean up and kiss him. She said if it didn’t work out, they’d go back to being friends, but could they, if they kissed? If they…  
“Where to?” She asked again.  
Oliver backed away, still smiling, and said, “It’s a surprise.”  
……  
Well, it was a surprise alright.   
He put a bandana over her eyes and walked her out of the limousine so she wouldn’t trip.  
“Step. Step. Alright, turn to your left…”  
When she was finally allowed to open her eyes, she ripped the bandana off, excited despite her attempts to hide it, and gasped.   
She was back at Verdant, in the foundry, but the tech system had been replaced.  
“Oh my God, OhmyGod! ohmygodohmygodohmygodOLIVER!” She ran to her computer and caressed her new keyboard.  
“This is… This hasn’t even come out yet! I can’t believe you…” She was finally speechless.   
“Do you like it?” Oliver asked, as if he actually needed to ask.  
Felicity ran to him and jumped, wrapping her hands around his neck. His arms immediate wrapped her waist, and her feet weren’t touching the ground anymore.   
“I love it. Thank you.” She told him. “Best first date ever!” She laughed and he out her down.   
She stood looking at it for what seemed like an eternity to Oliver and then she faced him.  
“Now we go home?” She asked.  
“Home it is.”  
On the ride back to her apartment she simply held his hand and leaned her head on his shoulder. It was past 12 by now, her feet were killing her; she’d had much excitement for one day.  
He walked her upstairs all the way to her front door and waited until she opened it, and turned the lights on.  
“Soo… this is goodnight.” He murmured, smiling.   
“I guess it is.” She whispered taking steps closer and closer until they were nose to nose.  
“I had a great time tonight.” He said, pulling a strand of her hair behind her ear.   
“I did too.” She smiled wide, and decisively reached up and pulled his face down.  
Their lips crashed together all too gentle. He pulled her body closer to his and held hear head with his other hand.   
“Oliver.”  
“Hmm.”  
“Do you wanna come inside?”  
Oliver kept kissing her until they both had to stop to breath and even then he pressed kisses against her neck, her clavicle.   
“Oliver?” She asked again.  
Oliver sighed and pulled away to look at her face with a pained expression.  
“There’s nothing I want more than to come to bed with you, Felicity Smoak. But we’ve had a very exciting day and night. I want you to be sure about this. I don’t want you to make any rash decision about us.”  
She sighed, and took a step back.  
“Oliver Queen saying no to sex? That’s a first.”  
Oliver almost winced.   
“You’re nothing like any of the women I’ve been with before. Nothing at all, Smoak.”  
He leaned down and kissed her full on the mouth one more time, tasting her lips and the inside of her lips when she parted her lips for him.  
He then pecked her on the lips and took a step back.  
“Goodnight Felicity. And please close the door before I change my mind.” His plea sounded sincere so Felicity ran, pecked him on the lips one more time, enjoying the feel of another set of lips on hers. HIS lips. And then ran back inside her apartment, shutting the door behind her.   
Through the peep hole she saw as he stood there, a sad puppy face. He turned around to leave and came back, almost knocked, and shook his head, touched his lips, and got onto the elevator.


	13. Her big suprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the perfect date Oliver gives Felicity a few more surprises. Some more likable than others.

She smiled, turned around and without being able to contain herself, let her head fall back and laughed, skipped to her bedroom giggling and stripped her clothes off while dancing to a song in her head.  
Had she ever been this happy? No, it was impossible. She felt like she was floating on clouds. Her heart was beating like crazy, her breath was uneven, her palms were moist and she had a fluttery feeling in her stomach.  
She froze, touched her lips with her fingertips to see if the tingling sensation was really there, and bit her lower lip. In a childish burst she turned the radio on to her favorite sound track loudly, ran to and jumped on the bed in her underwear.   
When the song was over she let herself fall on the mattress, her arms and legs spread out to all four corners of her frame, her hair falling all around her face. She curled herself into her comforter with a smile on her lips, turned the lamp off next to her bed and laid awake most of the night replaying the night over and over in her head.  
When she opened her eyes late the next morning she was smiling. The first thing she noticed was the smell coming from her kitchen; it smelled delicious.   
She swung her legs over the side of the bed and, finding the kitchen empty, opened the front door. In front of her she found a breakfast cart like the ones in the hotels (it wouldn’t surprise her if he’d bought it or stole it) filled with fruit wrapped with French toast and covered with honey and Nutella, just the way only he knew she loved it. It was decorated with orange slices and berries and accompanied by a cup of orange juice.   
And next to the cart, on the floor, a giant bouquet of flowers with a note attached. She picked it up and read it.   
I hope you don’t think I got carried away.  
I would have put them inside, but I thought  
It might have freaked you out. Enjoy.   
I’ll see you soon.  
She smiled wide, pulled the cart and flowers inside and had the most delicious breakfast since she was a child. Raisa used to make these especially for her, she knew she had a weakness.   
When she was done, she didn’t know what to do with the cart so she just left it next to the table, and the roses as the centerpiece. Just as she was about to get dressed her phone began to ring.  
It was Oliver.   
“Hi” She said, feeling like a lustful teenager with raging hormones.   
“God morning” Oliver answered. “How was your breakfast?”  
“Heavenly. But you wouldn’t guess what I found all over!”  
“WHAT?”  
“ROSE PETALS! ALL OVER! It was great, actually.”   
“Felicity, I can literally hear your smile.”  
She scoffed and tried to straighten her face blank but found she was unable to.  
“Okay, so you know I’m smiling.” She shrugged.   
“Did you like the flowers? I was going to get you roses, but that might too much pressure on you, I didn’t want to pressure you but I didn’t know what flowers you liked, I-”  
“BABBLING…is my thing, sir.” She laughed at him. “The flowers were great too.”  
“When can I see you?” He asked.  
“Well, I was-” She was interrupted by the sound of a truck horn blaring on the other side of the line.   
“Oliver, what are you doing? Where are you?” She asked him.   
“Umm…. An old friend of mine…. Is in town.”  
“Ohmygod you’re on the bike! Chasing another one! OLIVER!” She shouted, her heart racing, for a completely different reason this time.   
“I promise I’ll be ready to pick you up for lunch and a surprise afterwards.” He said, as if it made up for his mistake.  
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were going out. I would have wanted to go to the foundry at least, to help you. Then I’d get to see you sooner than lunch.” She added silently at the end,  
“I would love nothing more than, but I don’t want the only time we see each other to be like this.” He said sincerely.  
“I’m on my way to the foundry.” She told him.  
There was a screeching stop on the other side, a crash of metal against metal, and the line went dead.  
No. No. Not now, now that we’ve… NO.  
She ran to her room, snatched on a pair of jeans, the first shirt she found and ran to her car, heels in hand.   
She must have run more than a few red lights on the way there, but she’d make sure to delete their records later. Right now, she needed to know where Oliver was. She shoved the ear piece in her ear and called his name.   
“Oliver! OLIVER!” She heard a grunt behind her and she swung around. Diggle was dragging Oliver over his shoulder down the stairs.   
She didn’t shout, or ask questions. She knew whose fault this was. He was distracted by HER when he was hit. Diggle laid him out on the metal table and she checked his pulse. It was weak. She yanked his jacket off, feeling a sense of giddiness inside herself despite the situation. He had several deep cuts on his torso, his ribs were bruised and he was slashed across his clavicle pretty bad.   
She ran to get the first aid kit and started working on the worst cuts first. She cleaned them, sowed the deepest cuts, and covered the smaller ones, the glass scratches, with that liquid skin she’d gotten them just last week.  
“Diggle, help me hold him up straight while I wrap his torso.” She said, and Diggle did as he was asked.   
“This is all my fault.” She whispered.  
“Felicity,” Diggle said for the first time. “You DO know that the crash didn’t do this to him, right? He MADE that crash happen to stop Matt Silverman. If he’d gotten on that plane we would’ve lost him forever.”  
Felicity looked at Diggle helplessly. “This happened when he fell off the roof.” Diggle added casually.  
“He fell off a roof!?” She panicked, looking at Oliver as she and Diggle lowered him back onto the table.   
“Why don’t you tell me about your date instead?” Diggle suggested, a knowing smirk on his face.   
“I don’t wanna talk about it in front of Oliver. He might hear he’s a bad kisser.” She winked at Diggle, half expecting Oliver to open his eyes and call her out on that.   
She sewed the gruesome slash on his clavicle, barely managing to keep her hands steady, and connected the IV to his arm, and the oxygen machine.   
His heartbeat was still weak, and his oxygen levels were slowly falling. And then his heart was racing. The machine was going berserk.   
“Diggle.” She managed to choke out, holding on to Diggle with one hand and Oliver’s with the other.  
“Umm, Felicity, my-”  
And then it happened. He flatlined.


	14. Not the surprise she was expecting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver dies... but not really.  
> Felicity dies a little inside... but not really.  
> I might or might not lie... but not really.

She ran to the paddles, squirted the cream on them and charged to 300 because just in case he’s really dying.  
Without waiting, she pressed them to his upper chest and under his arm and the shock went off, making his body jerk.  
She heard a weird noise but didn’t have time to see what it was. She pressed the paddles again and charged again and he jerked on the table again.  
The line on the machine was still flat.  
She found she was having a hard time seeing around her, so she threw the paddles aside and sat on Oliver, one leg on each side of him, and with the heel of her hands starting pushing all her weight down on them thirty times. She bent down and pushed air into his lungs, and she repeated again.  
When that didn’t work she felt useless. Diggle came to pull her off of him slowly, but she couldn’t just sit there!  
“Call 911!” She shouted at Diggle.  
“Felicity…” He murmured. His face was… broken. He didn’t look at her directly and Oliver was still laying on the table without a heartbeat, without breathing.  
“CALL 911!!! I have to get him out of these clothes and into his regular clothes, we can tell the police he fell from the second floor of the club…”  
She jumped off of him and yanked his shoes off while Diggle just stood there.  
“DIGGLE!” She shouted frustrated. Why would he just stand there? Didn’t he want to help Oliver?  
“Of course I would! You know I would, if I could, but Felicity… He’s gone…” Diggle, pulled her face to look at him in the eyes.  
“It’ll be okay. I’m sorry. He’s gone.” Diggle pressed her against his chest and she realized what was happening.  
Oliver was talking to her this morning. He promised her lunch and a surprise. For a second she wondered what the surprise would have been. A vacation Queen Style? Probably, he liked to be extravagant. As a matter of fact, he’d probably just stand up, and laugh and say, “Joke’s on you!”  
But she stared at him, on that table, pale and unmoving and she felt it for the first time. She felt the clutching in her chest, the tightness that didn’t let her breathe, the pit in her stomach that made her have to repress the urge to throw up.  
She’d gotten really good at that. Because of the cancer.  
Cancer. She was the one that was supposed to be dead from Cancer. And then he found her. He gave her life. And then he… died?  
“If I had let him… stay the night…” She whispered, her hands shaking.  
“He would still be dead.” And that’s what did it. The word.  
She realized she couldn’t see very well because she’d been crying the entire time. She couldn’t breathe because she’d been sobbing.  
“NO!” She ran back to Oliver and hit him.  
“NO! You don’t get to come into my sick, sorry life and make it-”  
She punched his stomach.  
“Wonderful and happy and fun and then-”  
She punched his arm.  
“DIE! You’re NOT ALLOWED!”  
She put all the force she had left in her body and punched his chest with all her might, letting herself fall on the floor next to the table like a rag doll, sobbing.  
She held on to Oliver’s hand as Diggle walked next to her to pick her up.  
“Felicity, you need to get out of here, I can take it from here.” He offered.  
“No.” She said. Diggle sighed, and, not being able to fight her, went to stand at a distance, feeling as useless as she did.  
She punched his arm again, but it barely even made his arm swing by the side of the bed.  
She stared at his hand and felt sick to her stomach.  
Could she really have been so happy just this morning?  
She was staring at his dangling hand she thought she imagined it when his finger twitched. Then it did it again, and one more time before Felicity got up to look at his face.  
He was wincing and in a lot of pain, but he was most definitely not dead.  
“Diggle!” She shouted, and John came over.  
“He’s not dead! Come on, help me with his clothes, we need to get him to the hospital!” She said, excitedly.  
Diggle was on it immediately. He helped Felicity re-dress him as he winced, his eyes still shut, but flinching away from the pain, despite the high dose of morphine she’d injected him with.  
\--------------  
When Oliver woke up he was in a hospital bed. Shit. Had they found out?  
He didn’t have handcuffs on, so his best guess was no. He opened his eyes, and was blinded by a bright light, so he closed them, looked to the side and took a peek.  
Felicity was there, laying on a couch, drooling. Her hair was a beautiful curly mess, she wasn’t wearing one of her glamorous outfits, and instead she was wearing jeans and a T shirt. And those jeans did nice things for her, he noted.  
Felicity groaned, and rubbed her eyes before opening them.  
“You’re awake!” she said, smiling and came to the bed.  
“Thank you.” He squeezed her hand. Her face was suddenly sullen and she frowned.  
“You scared me,” She said. “I don’t want to go through this again.”  
“It’s an occ-”  
“If you say occupational hazard I’ll punch you again.”  
“Again? Did you punch me trying to revive me?” He laughed, a wrinkle light in his eyes.  
“It’s not funny. But yes, I did.” She sat at the edge of the bed. “You get out today.”  
“Already?” He asked.  
“Well, I wouldn’t say already, you’ve been here a while. And everyone has come to see you. Diggle’s at the cafeteria getting us real food and Thea pops in and out every couple hours to check on you. Your mother didn’t leave until an hour ago, I think.” She told him, playing with his hand.  
“And you?”  
She didn’t look up as she answered, “That couch isn’t as comfortable as it looks.”  
He laughed and turned her face towards him. “I still we you a lunch and a surprise.” He said.  
“You shouldn’t even be thinking about that! You should focus on recovering. You broke some ribs and you got some ugly cuts.”  
“No way! I have ugly cuts? I can’t have that! I’m a Queen, Queens don’t have scars!” He said sarcastically and she couldn’t help but laugh.  
“See, that’s how I love seeing you. Happy, laughing. Which is why I’m taking you to lunch tomorrow.” He said.  
“Oliver, you DO know I’ll still love you even without you taking me out to eat and getting me surprises every other day, right? I’m happy just doing what we do every day.” She said, and just then Diggle came in.  
“Hey! You’re alive! Welcome to the land of the living, man.” He patted liver on the shoulder and started pulling out bags of food.  
“Big Belly Burger? I thought you went to the cafeteria.” Felicity mumbled.  
“I said I’d get us food. That cafeteria food tastes like the soles of his shoes.” He pointed at Oliver.  
“Did he get away?” Oliver suddenly asked.  
“Yes, but not so far. His plane never took off.” Diggle winked at Felicity.  
“Who are we talking about, again?” Felicity asked, before taking a bite.  
“Ummm… Sean Arnold. He’s a hit-man. Takes millions of dollars and kills rich man’s competition AKA other rich men.” Diggle explained.  
“How does he kill them?” She felt her stomach sink a little.  
“An eye for an eye type, depending on what they did to piss someone off.” Oliver said.  
“Soo… you’d probably be arrowed to death?” She asked, not looking at him.  
“Felicity, I’m not gonna be arrowed to death,” He chuckled.  
“Mmmhmm… yeah, I’d rather look this guy up before you chase him down again.” She stood and picked up her laptop from behind the couch and started typing as swiftly as she breathed. She paused for a moment, looked up at Oliver, and sighed.  
“Before we go back to our regular selves… I- just-… Thank you. For not dying. I wouldn’t want to ever live in a world without you.” She whispered.


	15. Do you like Surprises as much as I do?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah comes back to Oliver and brings Felicity a little surprise. (And we find out why exactly Felicity ran away from her ex Mattias when he proposed, and what she lied about).

Oliver was out walking the next day, stumbling here and there on his crutches, which, in part thanks to his great upper body strength, seemed to be as easy as walking for him. Maybe a little too much.  
  
“I need to get back out there and hunt him down, he could be planning his next assassination right now, he could-” Oliver rambled, anxiety kicking in from spending too many nights in a hospital and being disabled now because of the cast on his leg. “SIT” Felicity ordered him with her stern voice. He loked at her for a couple seconds before sitting.  
  
“I’m sorry, you’re right, I haven’t paid enough attention to you, I should-”  
  
“Attention to ME? No, you’ve done that perfectly, I’m not wearing a fashionable cast with crutches. I’m worried about your leg not healing properly if you keep going up and down those stairs as if nothing had happened. Sit. I’ll bring you some tea.” She murmured. Oliver watched as she walked upstairs towards the bar. “Please don’t add any ‘relaxants’ this time!” He quoted ‘relaxants’ with his index fingers in the air. Felicity giggled and shut the door behind her.  
  
When he was alone an alarm on her computer went off and, unable to contain himself, he lunged towards her chair and looked at the screen. An alarm had gone off. Inside the club. He turned his head and suddenly and out of nowhere Sarah was there, leaning against a wall, smiling.  
  
“I DID hear you got yourself into a little bit of a mess.” She said, and walked over to him. “I didn’t think it’d be something that would make you come back. I thought you hated me now.” He said. “Oh, Oliver, everyone has their problems, we’re not going to let that come between us, right?” She leaned down and pressed her lips to his. In shock, Oliver thought about pushing her away or protesting, but did neither. Only when they both heard a glass cup shatter at the top of the stair case did Sarah pull away.  
  
“I’m- I was- I- Sorry, I’ll clean it up.” Felicity stuttered and ran back into the club. Sarah turned to look at Oliver’s face turn red. “What is she, your maid now?” She joked, but seeing Oliver’s expression she turned serious. “Oli, are you okay? I’m sorry if that made her uncomfortable, I didn’t do it on purpose. I’ll go help her, okay?” She was already up the stairs by the time she was done talking.  
  
“Sarah! Don’t- come back! DAMN IT!” Oliver shouted, unable to get up the stairs as fast as he could before. He resigned himself to stand at the bottom of the stair case until Sarah came back in with a towel and a bucket. “Umm, I guess she decided to bolt? I didn’t see her upstairs. Oli, if it bothers her that much why don’t you talk with her?” Sarah asked casually.  
  
“Sarah,” Oliver began with his most calm voice. “Why are you here?” He asked. She looked up, surprised. “To help you, of course.” She answered, and went back to cleaning. Just then Felicity came back in through the door and stopped dead, seeing Sarah cleaning her mess. “Oh, I couldn’t find the broom, please don’t, I got it.” And all but pushed Sarah out of the way. “Okay?” Sarah stood to the side and watched Felicity, then Oliver and back.  
  
“You didn’t come back just because of me.” Oliver tried to pursue the conversation. “Of course I did. I heard you were in the hospital, you got a little bumped up.”  
  
“A little bumped up?” Felicity was suddenly standing, looking incredulously at Sarah. “He didn’t get hurt, Sarah, he DIED.” She stressed the last word. “He was there, laying on that table, unmoving, not breathing, and his heart stopped BEATING.” She took a deep breath, and tunred around to pick up the last of the mug.  
  
“Well yeah, but he’s back, he’s alive.” Sarah walked over to Oliver as she spoke, and put her hand on his shoulder, smiling at him as if he was her favorite kid who’d just scored a goal.  
  
“No thanks to you.” Felicity whispered; she’d forgotten for a moment that the acoustics of the room were much more developed because of the walls and the room was beneath a building, so her words traveled all the way to both their ears.  
  
“Excuse me?” Sarah said, straightening her shoulders. Felicity’s eyes went wide with fear for a second. Then she got a grip on herself, and face Sarah. “Well… You were off on your little mini after-breakup vacation and you weren’t there for him, I was.” Sarah opened her mouth to speak, closed it, and repeated. Her head cocked to the side as she turned to look at Oliver. “I’m sorry, am I missing something? Because she thinks we broke up.” She told Oliver.  
  
“Sarah. You told me I had to choose and when I didn’t answer you walked away from me and next thing I know you’re back in Eurasia with the League. Was this anything BUT a breakup?” Oliver asked. Sarah scoffed, forgetting completely about Felicity’s presence in the room. “That’s our deal, Oliver. We fight, we take a break, we come back, and all is good.” She said, more questioning than making a statement.  
  
“No, Sarah, that was YOUR thing, not ours, and I never agreed to those terms. And when you walked out that door you walked out on me, and that was your decision. I just chose not to crawl back to you like I’ve done so many times before.” Oliver said. Sarah stood in front of him, nodding her head slowly, as if taking time to get a grip on the situation, her reaction, and the re-noticed fact that Felicity Smoak was in the room.  
  
“Well, I’ll let myself out.” She finally said, and walked up the stairs, past Felicity, and opened the door, letting Felicity have a glimpse of another person outside. “Sarah!” Felicity called out, and Sarah stopped at the doorframe, leaving the door open. “What have you done?” She asked Sarah, who looked at the man behind her and apologized, “I’m sorry Mattias. I thought I’d be helping you and Felicity. It seems she was… otherwise engaged.”  
  
And with that Sarah stomped out of the club, leaving a very confused Mattias behind her. “Fel?” He asked, trying to glimpse down the stairs. “We were working on the inventory.” Felicity lied, closing the door behind her. As hurt as she was, as confused and heartbroken, she couldn’t let her feelings get the best of her and ruin their cover. “We?” Mattias asked. Felicity sighed, and looking for the best way out simply whispered, “Meet me at my apartment later. I can’t right now.” And went back inside, leaving him alone upstairs.  
  
She walked towards Oliver and sat in her chair while he just stood there, still staring towards the stairs. “I’m sorry.” He finally said. “I thought…” He began, but couldn’t put a string of words together to make up for the fact that he DID know Sarah’s pattern. He knew deep inside she’d come back and still let himself go on with Felicity. “You didn’t… I’m sorry, I didn’t hear the end of that phrase.” Felicity snapped at him. Oliver turned to look at her and she immediately regretted using her angry voice with him.  
“Felicity, I’m so sorry. I should’ve-”  
  
“Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve, it doesn’t make a difference now.” She muttered, playing with her fingernails. “Sarah thought you were still together, but it doesn’t change the fact that you didn’t stop her.” She slowly brought herself to look up at Oliver’s face and see nothing but regret. “Oliver,” She pushed herself up until her face was so close to him she could feel his breath on her lips. She wanted nothing more than to close that distance, but instead, stood her ground and said, “Talk to Sarah. She was here first, and I have no right to come between the two of you. I don’t want to be the cause. Please don’t turn me into that.” She walked past him, grabbed her purse and started to make her way up the stairs.  
  
“Wait! Where are you going?” Oliver asked.  
  
“I have to talk to Mattias. I don’t know what Sarah told him, but he’s back, and this time I have a feeling he won’t leave just because I ask him to.” She whispered, knowing he’d hear her. Oliver nodded once, unhappy about this, and watched her walk out the door, wanting to run after her and bring her back.  
\-------- >   
  
Oliver stumbled into his room and, as he’d expected, found Sarah sitting on his windowsill. “Care to explain this to me again? I’m sort of lost. Did you start dating her after I ‘walked out’ on you, or did you start taking her to dinner and building her tree houses while we were still dating?” She pointed to the tree house in plain view form his bedroom window. “Oh, I bet you picked that tree out especially for her, didn’t you?” She asked Oliver.  
  
He sighed and sat on his bed. “It’s not like that, Sarah, never was. She was just a friend… My best friend.” He said. “A best friend you kiss goodnight?” She asked, turning her cellphone in between her fingers, like she'd just gotten off the phone with someone. Oliver squinted his eyes at her. “Were you having me watched?” He asked her. “Only in case that lunatic came after you!” Sarah defended herself, jumping to her feet. “Oliver, don’t you see? I do everything I do for you! I came back for you, I fight with you, I-”  
  
Oliver interrupted her. “You do all that for yourself, don’t ty to play innocent with me, Sarah.” He looked away from her. “You never answered. Was it during or after?” She asked again. He looked up, hurt. “After, Sarah. You should know that even at our worst I wouldn’t-”  
  
"Cheat? You wouldn’t cheat, is that what you were about to say? Like you wouldn’t cheat on Laurel, the love of your life?” Sarah asked. “I’m not a child anymore, Sarah, I’m not that person anymore.” He said. “Oh, well, then it’s all better now, isn’t it?” She was about to walk out when he called after her. “Wait! Sarah!” She stopped. “Don’t leave. I… I want to talk to you, I don’t want things to be bitter between us.” She turned around slowly after he spoke and asked him one last question. “Are you asking me to stay for her sake?”  
\--------- >   
  
“You’re still here.” Felicity said as she approached her door. Mattias sat at her doorstep with his longing puppy face that lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw her. It was so unfair. How many times must she bring herself to hurt him again, and how many times would he come back to her like nothing had happened?  
  
“Yes.” He answered. “Just like you asked.” She nodded and opened the door, leaving it open for him to come inside. “You have a nice place.” He said as he followed her. “I don’t think I mentioned it last time I- anyways…” He glanced at the living room with sadness in his eyes and then turned back to Felicity, who’d walked to the kitchen. “Sit.” She ordered, and he followed suit. “Do you want… tea?” She asked.  
  
“Yes, please.” He answered, crossing his fingers on the tabletop. As the water boiled, she stared at his hands and found herself thinking about the many times they’d been together. He hadn’t been her only one, of course, but as shy as he looked, he’d been her best yet. He knew just where to- The water boiled and she poured the water in the two mugs. She handed him the mug and went back to her cabinets to get the honey.  
  
“You remember.” He smiled. “I could hardly forget in two years.” She said unsmiling, and sat across the table from him. “What did she say to you?” Felicity asked him. He looked away and shifted his weight form one side to the other. “Mattias?” She called out to him.  
  
“She said that she needed Oliver to understand that you were emotionally involved with someone else for him to be able to leave you alone. I thought I could help… For old time’s sake, at least.” He answered. When he finally looked up at her he didn’t know what to think of it. Her face was a perfect poker expression. “Sarah said… She wanted you here to keep Oliver away from me?” She asked.  
  
“Well, not exactly. You said the both of you were together, and she told me you lied, to protect me. I know you had cancer. She said you’re better now though. Of course if we decided to make a family we couldn’t have kids of our own, I can’t pass the cancer gene to our kids, it’d be irresponsible, but you always spoke of adopting so I thought it’d be a good option for us and-”  
  
Felicity interrupted him, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Mattias! Stop!” He stopped blabbering immediately, looking shocked. His old Felicity would have ever yelled at him. Of course his old Felicity was suffering from the many symptoms of cancer when they were dating, and all the while he suffered the death of everyone he loved because of cancer. She realized then and there that she couldn’t lie to him anymore. She couldn’t lie to anyone else anymore, as a matter of fact.  
  
“Mattias, I do have cancer.” She said. “Have? Not had?” He whimpered. “Listen to me. I’m done lying. Do you understand?” He nodded. “Mattias, I didn’t leave you because I didn’t love you. I did love you, which is why I left you. I loved you enough not to put you through this again, but I didn’t love you enough to be selfish and stay with you for my own benefits. I didn’t love you enough then, and I don’t love you now. I’m a time bomb, Mattias.” She explained.  
  
“You’re not a time bomb, you’re going to be alright. The doctor said-”  
  
“What I wanted the doctor to say. I lied about what the doctor said, Mattias. I knew I had cancer long before you proposed. I was having chemo side effects. Those long work trips? I stayed three blocks away at the hospital in the oncology wing you constantly avoided.” Mattias was shaking his head. “No, I would’ve known, I would have…” He muttered. “Would have what, Mattias? There’s nothing you could have done.” She told him. She put her hand on top of his quivering hand but he snatched it away. “Then why did you run away from me when I proposed? You were flustered that day, I understand, but if you’d already been having chemo…”  
  
Felicity took a deep breath, blinked a few times to prevent the tears she knew would come as soon as he ran out the door, and said in a steady voice, “Because that was the day my doctor told me treatment had stopped working. He told me the tumors were inoperable. He told me I was a terminal patient.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so... I tried to work on the paragraph format, I just type fast and it's an inconvenience to have to go back and re-double space (which I did do this time). How's this format? 
> 
> And how was the chapter??? I tried really hard last night to write but nothing came so I wrote it tonight, I was feeling more sentimental :)


	16. The Support System

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity makes a decision about her treatment prospects.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> being an adult sucks. sorry it took so long. ENJOY!

“No.” His hands were trembling and his voice was shaky. 

“Mattias…?” Felicity murmured, preparing herself for an outburst. But then she realized his lips were pressed tight together; too tight for him to speak. His breath was too uneven. “Are you… okay?” She asked him. He looked around helplessly and asked, “Do you need a transplant?” 

“Mattias, even if I did find an O negative bone marrow and kidney donor, the chances of surviving the surgery are very slim.” She explained. Mattias stood slowly, looking for a reason to stay and found none. “I guess you were right.” He said. “I love you. But not enough to put myself through all this again.” He walked to the door and when his hand has already on the handle he paused, hesistating, and turned back to look at Felicity, who was still watching him, heart broken. “You should fight. If not for me, then for yourself. You deserve to live a long life… and not a lot of people can say that for themselves.” And with that, he closed the door gently behind him.

When the door latched closed she felt her chest get heavy. Could she really fight? She wasn’t terminal. Not just yet anyways, but that’s where she was heading if she didn’t do anything, like she was doing now. It was hard to find anything O negative, it was even harder to find a bone marrow transplant AND kidney donor. Her mother wasn’t a match, her father was out of the picture, and she didn’t have any other family to ask. Margo tested herself and she wasn’t a match either. She had accepted her fate a while ago. But was Mattias right, of all people? Did ‘better late than never’ apply to her too?

 

There was a knock on the door and she made a beeline to open it. On the other side she found Oliver half smiling. “I missed you.” He said sheepishly. She smiled, despite her attempt to stay serious. She let herself fall on the couch, letting him close the door by himself, and asked him, “Did you talk to Sarah?” Oliver nodded and sat across from her, looking at his fidgeting hands. “I did.” He said finally. 

She was momentarily distracted by leather jacket, gathered her thoughts and prompted him to continue. “And….”

“I can’t be with Sarah.” Oliver said, sitting up straight, squaring his shoulders, preparing himself to put up a fight. “And why is that?” Felicity asked him. He simply shook his head, looking for the right words. 

“Well, here’s the thing. I do love Sarah. It’s kind of hard not to, we’ve been through a lot, including the island. But I know what it’s going to be like the rest of my life if I’m with her. I’ll always be fighting the crime, never fully invested in my father’s company, I’ll never have a life outside arrow, and she’ll push me to do she is necessary, even if that means killing.” He looked nervous, wringing his wrists. 

“But I don’t know what I’ll have with you.” He continued. “You… I want to be with you for a long time. I want to help you fight the cancer and I want to be next to you through every step. I know that I can count on you to help me from the foundry when I need to be the arrow and I know I can count on you to bring out the human in me when I’m with you…” Oliver shifted weight from one side to the other. “I practiced that about a thousand times in front of the mirror for the past three possibly five hours.” He laughed breathlessly.

Felicity couldn’t contain the knot in her throat from spilling down her face. “Oh, no, Felicity.” Oliver was next to her immediately, holding her close to him. “I’ll be right here the whole time. I promise.” He said. She thought a while before asking him in her most steady voice, “Do you want to come see my doctor with me? I think we need to talk about a plan for me.”

> \-------------- >

 

“Do you feel queasy?” She asked him. Oliver looked paler than he did when he lost a lot of blood from one of his chases. He looked up at her quickly. “Wha- NO! I’m fine, are you?” He said rapidly. She nodded, smiling because nervous Oliver was cute. He was holding her hand, sitting on the bed with her. “Is he a good doctor? ‘cause we can get a better one, the best in the country.” He murmured. “Shhh, Oliver, he’s coming.” She whispered. Just then the door opened and sure enough, Dr. Lazaro walked in. 

“Ms. Smoak!” He hugged her and shook Oliver’s hand. “Didn’t think I’d be seeing you around much! But it’s always a pleasure, and who might this be?” He referred to Oliver. “Oh, this is my oldest friend, Oliver. He’s my… support group, I guess.” She explained. The doctor nodded, and asked her directly, “Have you changed your mind about your last plan?” His face was immediately serious. 

“Yes. I want to try to do what I can as of right now.” She said. Dr. Lazaro opened her chart, flipping through the pages. “Well, your last lab results came back, there wasn’t been much change in your WBC count, that could be good or bad depending on how you look at it, so the best solution is the same as last time. We can put on you the transplant list, we need the bone marrow and kidney, it would be too risky to do two surgeries but if they come from different donors we’ll handle that as it comes at us.” He sighed and looked up at Felicity. 

“Let’s do it.” She smiled big, trying to be optimistic about her own future. Dr. Lazaro, however, simply nodded. “Very well. I’ll add you to the list, I’ll bring some paperwork for you to fill out and I’ll be right back.” He walked out.

“Wait, I need to go to the bathroom and I’ll be back, okay?” Oliver slurred, jumped off the bed and ran out of the room. 

 

“Well,” Felicity said, alone in the room, “So much for my support system.”

“Dr. Lazaro!” Oliver shouted and caught up with the man in two seconds flat. 

“Yes?” Dr. Lazaro asked, not stopping his pace. 

“I’m O negative.” Oliver said. Dr. Lazaro stopped, and turned to look at him. “And you know this because…” 

“I’ve been known for my recklessness and more than once I’ve had to do a blood work to test the alcohol levels.” He explained. Dr. Lazaro raised one eyebrow. “And what makes you think you’re a probable candidate if you’ve ruined your kidneys already?” Oliver shook his head. “I haven’t gotten drunk in 6 years. Believe me, there’s no alcohol where I was stranded for that long. If there had been I would have drunk myself dead.” That probably wasn’t what the doctor wanted to hear because he turned away from Oliver and kept walking. 

“Oh, come ON! At least do a test to see if I’m a match!” He pleaded. Dr. Lazaro picked up a form from the nurse at the front desk. “Be here tomorrow at ten. Will you want Ms. Smoak to be aware?” He asked, looking at Oliver over the rim of his glasses. “Uhh…” He hesitated, “Not until I know the results.” Dr. Lazaro nodded and handed the form to Oliver. “You can both go once you fill it out. Bring the form to the front desk when you’re done with it.”


	17. Sean Arnold the hit man interrupts a perfectly good moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And Oliver does a nice thing or two.

Oliver sat. Then stood, shifted weight from one foot to the other, walked around the office, trying to occupy his mind with the fake bone structures, or the toys the doctors used to explain the diseases, but didn’t find them comforting, so he went back to the paper bed and laid back. The lights were too bright, damn it. He threw his arm over his eyes and after a few seconds, couldn’t help but sit up again. 

He looked at his cell phone screen saver, a picture of him with Diggle to his left, and Felicity on his right. He groaned and chugged what was left of the water bottle he’d re-filled a couple times already that day. He’d been told to drink plenty of water, his body would need it. 

Finally, someone knocked on the door and the nurse popped her head in. “Hello! How are you?” And with her she brought what seemed like an endless supply of test tubes. “Umm...” He couldn’t find the rights words. Terrified? Worried? No, it had to be something followed by shit-less. “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt that much. Let’s see.” She looked at both his arms and decided on his right arm. She tightened the tourniquet until his fingers were tingling and had him squeeze a plastic ambulance baby toy. “Puurrrr….fect.” She put on her gloves, swiped the area with alcohol, and out came the needle. It wasn’t as bad as the Lian Yu blades so he watched as she pushed past his skin and the blood swerved into the little tube. She placed tube after tube, each one sucking the blood from his veins. When she was done she pulled out the needle, at a bad angle he guessed, and he started bleeding more. “Hold pressure here.” She had him press the cotton ball to where she’d poked him while she unraveled the bandage, cutting a piece to wrap around his elbow. 

“Oh. Is that really ness-” He was asking when she interrupted him with a look. “Are you telling me how to do my job?” She asked. “Mm mm.” Oliver shook his head and let her pick everything up and he was on his way. “Remember!” She called out as he walked away, “No strenuous activities!” 

>\------- >

“Hey big bro!” Thea called, bouncing down the stairs. “I heard about the thing, I’m sorry.” Her face was genuinely sympathetic. “About…” Oliver prompted her. Did she find out about Felicity?

“You know, Sarah and you breaking up. It sucks, ‘cause now Laurel feels weird, and Tommy can’t breathe without her around, so it just… got messy?” She explained, fixing his collar as soon as she was close enough. While fixing his new plaid shirt her hand brushed against the bandage he was hoping to hide. “Ollie, what-” Thea stopped herself, and pulled his sleeve up his arm. “What happened?!” She asked more loudly than she needed to. 

“Geez, Thea, nothing, I just took a few tests to stay healthy, there were a lot of diseases on a deserted island I hadn’t taken shots for.” He lied smoothly. “Oh.” Thea looked deflated. “Well, Diggle and Lyla said they’d join us for drinks in an hour, Roy’s setting up right now…” She hesitated before asking, “Will you be inviting anyone?” She looked at him innocently for a few seconds, and when Oliver didn’t know what to say she intervened, “Look, Ollie, We won’t judge you as a crazy womanizer if you invite her. We all liked her! And besides, Laurel and Tommy won’t come just because they don’t wanna exclude Sarah form their lives. She’s not alone, Felicity shouldn’t be either.” 

Oliver smiled slightly and brought Thea into his arms. “When did you get to be so wise?” He said to her through her curls. “Hmm, I think it may have been sometime between learning to talk and learning to walk.” She said sarcastically, and laughed. “I’ll see you BOTH later!” She called as she headed to help Roy. Oliver took the stairs one at a time, he wasn’t feeling his best, that lady had taken way more blood than she probably needed. Once he reached his room he yanked off the bandage and threw it in the trash. There was a slight bruise from the injection site, and it felt sore when he tried to bend his arm, but otherwise he felt fine. 

“That’s… great actually.” He whispered to himself as he picked up the phone and dialed Felicity’s number. “Oliver!” She answered. “No, Oliver has been kidnapped and we want a billion dollars.” He said in his arrow voice. “Well, then you’d want to talk to his mother.” She joked. It was nice to hear her laugh, he thought, he hadn’t heard it in a while with all the drama that she’d been engulfed in, partly because Oliver wasn’t clear enough with Sarah and partly because he was the Arrow. 

“What’s up?” She asked. “We’re having a small dinner party, just drinks, no big deal. I wanted to ask if you wanted to join me.” Maybe his voice could have been a little more casual? He waited in silence for a while before she finally said, “Well, are you gonna ask me or not?” He barked out a laugh, and when he regained his breath he said in a raspy voice, “Felicity Megan Smoak, will you join me for a small dinner party?”

“Yes, I will, sir. I’ll be there at… 9?” She asked. “Works for me.” He said, and heard her giggle somewhat before hanging up the phone call.

 ------- >

Felicity was wearing a small blue dress she’d found on sale last month and had never had the chance to wear, but since she’d recently adapted the motto ‘you won’t live forever, might as get get it while you still can,’ she bought it anyways. The heels matched her necklace and her hair was done to perfection (another new motto, ‘you’re not gonna live forever, try to look pretty while you’re still here’). So naturally, when liver opened the door and saw this Greek Goddess in front of his very eyes, it took hima few seconds to realize it was his very own Felicity. 

“Oh, wow, you look… Stunning.” He said, opening the door further for her to come in. “Ha, thank you. It took me forever.” She said, unconsciously wringing her wrists. She looked up at Oliver suddenly nervous, and began, “Is she….”

“No. She’s not here. Or Laurel.” He re-assured her, and placed his hand in the small of her back to guide her gently to the living room, where Thea had arranged a bar. “You have to meet Lyla, she just got back from her tour today.” Oliver told her, pointing to the woman with Diggle. She was beautiful, her long brown waves rolled down her back, making Felicity jealous. 

“Felicity!” Diggle said loudly as she approached them. “Hey, Fel, this here is my wife-”  
“Ex-wife.” She corrected him, elbowing him in the process.

“Lyla. She was on duty with me.” Diggle finished, obviously proud to have her standing beside him. Gosh, the way he looked at her, he glorified the ground she walked on. She felt butterflies just looking at the two of them. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Felicity, I’ve heard a lot about you.” Lyla winked at Felicity. “It’s a pleasure, and I hope all good things?” She joked.

“Too good, I’ll be looking for a flaw, but something tells me they wouldn’t believe me even if I did.” Lyla didn’t get a chance to keep going because Roy came in running, wrapped his arms around Felicity in an enormous bear hug, and twirled her around before finally setting her down. “Man! I’ve missed you, you’re fun to be around! What are you drinking?” Roy asked Felicity, heading over to the bar. “Actually- I’m good for now, thanks though.” She smiled at Roy. 

The rest of the evening went about as well as any get together usually would for them. There was no awkward mention of the break-up, or Sarah, or where Laurel and Tommy were. Strangely so, which made Felicity wonder if he’d asked them not to say anything before she’d gotten there. At some point throughout the night she realized Oliver had left her side and when she looked around she saw him coming back to her, two wine glasses in his hands. 

“Oliver, I’ not supposed to drink.” She didn’t look at him while she spoke, almost embarrassed, feeling like an 18 year old teen. “Alcohol. You can’t drink alcohol. Which is why I brought you passion fruit juice. I know you like it.” He smiled as she took the drink. It was a miracle she didn’t snort the drink like she did her laugh. She should have known it was too good to be true. 

When Lyla and Diggle had left and Roy and Thea had mysteriously disappeared (which he strongly decided was something he did not want to uncover), he and Felicity were left alone, wondering the Queen mansion until they finally ended up in the garden, which was very dark except for the random lights that shone up the palm trees around the paths. 

“Look,” Felicity dug in her purse and pulled out a new cell phone. “Did you replace your old crappy phone?!” He asked, more excitedly than he should have. Her face fell immediately to a sarcastic growl. “My phone isn’t crappy. And no,” Her face lit up again. “This is my arrow phone. I synced it with the computer in the foundry and when there’s something going on I’ll know even if I’m not there!” She smiled so big and beautifully…

“That’s… Thank you Felicity.” He said, smiling down at her. “Thank you? No, sir, this is mine.” She laughed and hid it in her purse again. “No, I meant- thank you for caring. Since you came Diggle’s relaxed a lot more. He’s all but forgotten he was upset with me before, and you helping with the computer system, and- just everything. Since you came along everything’s been better.”

“Does that mean I get to officially join your elite group?” She teased playing with the bridge over the lake. “Join?” Oliver asked, “No. You can lead it, take charge, by all means.” He watched as her head fell back. He didn’t think- at all- when he suddenly reached out and pulled her close to him, close enough to feel her breath on his lips. “Oliver?” She asked, her voice trembling a little, her eyes traveling from his eyes to his lips and back. “Yeah?” He asked, completely oblivious to her questioning. When she didn’t answer in any way except by putting her small hands on his shoulders, he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers slowly.

He continued to kiss her, asking her lips for permission to kiss her the way he really wanted to, until she finally gave in. Her lips parted and he pulled her even tighter against him; pressed her between him and the railing of the bridge. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she gave into the kiss as well, prompting herself as high as her heels allowed. 

Felicity was the first to break the kiss, to come up for air, and Oliver simply started kissing her neck, letting his hands wonder up and down the sides of her waist and hips. Felicity was starting to feel the pressure building up and was about to ask him to take her to his room, to which no doubt he’d respond quickly, when the phone started beeping. “Oliver.” She murmured against his lips. “Ignore it.” He groaned, grabbing her hips and pressing her against his middle, effectively letting her know just how urgent this was, right now. “That’s the alarm… For the arrow.” She whispered, despite everything in her body telling her to shut her mouth. Oliver froze, sighed, and kissed her one more time before pulling away. “Okay, let’s get going.”

They were at the foundry in ten minutes flat, thanks to Oliver’s new Italian Sports car and three red lights. Roy wouldn’t pick up his phone and Oliver didn’t feel right calling Diggle on Lyla’s first night back. So alone he went and changed while Felicity pulled up the information on a bigger screen. 

“The alarm system for Alan Schmidt went off.” She said. “Meaning?” Oliver asked, mounting his bike. “Meaning someone looked up his information online and got everything from his financial statements to his safe house address of the month.” She explained. “Where’s the best bet to go to right now?” Oliver asked. She thought about this before answering, “His house? He was a fraud, so you’d think his financial statements would be enough but it’s been ten minutes and they haven’t touched a dime. And this came from a cell tower in Central City, roughly thirty minutes away so my best guess would be to get there early and shoot them as they come.” She said quickly.

“You’re a genius, Felicity.” He said, and she heard him rev the engine as he made his way to Schmidt’s house. He ditched the bike about a block away and blended into the trees behind the house. He could see Alan in the kitchen with his wife eating dinner completely unaware that they were about to be ambushed. They looked just like anyone else, how could these people do so much harm? Why should he be helping them? Just then, a small girl in a princess pajama ran to Alan, who picked her up in the air as she laughed and kissed her goodnight. “That’s why you do it. In case you were wondering.” Felicity’s voice rang in his ear. He didn’t respond, but rather realized that if someone had looked into his own house when he was younger, this was exactly what they would have seen. 

He saw them before they knew he was there. He picked a safe spot and shot the first three in a row. Once the other knew where he was shooting form they started firing in his general direction. He jumped to a lower branch in a tree and shot from there, getting two more guys. He saw one man trying to break into the house, effectively setting the house alarms off, and Alan running deeper into the house, clutching his daughter to his chest. He didn’t notice the man behind him until he was knocked off the tree completely. From the ground he shot the last man, who fell limp to the ground. 

“Shit.” He murmured. He hadn’t meant to hit his chest. He didn’t have time to think about it though, because Sean Arnold, the hit man, had taken one of the arrows from the wounded men and was pointing it at Oliver’s chest as he fell in his direction. Oliver rolled to one side and kicked him in the knees, pulling back an arrow and shooting Arnold in the arm holding the arrow, which fell to the ground. “Fuck!” Arnold shouted. 

“I thought you helped the good, not protected the people who are rotting your city, vigilante.” He spit at Oliver, who punched him in the face with enough force to throw him to the ground. “No. I bring justice to them. You just kill. All you are is a murderer.” And with that he arrowed his hand to the ground, then the other hand and both his feet. “You’re not going anywhere now, so I’d advise you stop struggling, it’ll only make you bleed out faster.” Oliver suggested, and made his way to the house, hearing the police sirens far away, on their way. 

“Where is he inside the house?” He asked Felicity. “Um… They’re all in the basement.”

Oliver sent an arrow through the lowest window straight into the basement and jumped in, pointing his last arrow straight at Alan Schmidt. “You have failed this city.” He said in his arrow voice. “Please,” Alan begged. “I have a daughter.”

“Go up the stairs.” He ordered Alan. “Please, PLEASE.” He left Oliver no choice. He pointed the arrow at the girl, careful to grasp the arrow tighter. “UP.” He said once and Alan ran up with stairs, and Oliver followed, leaving a mother and child crying hysterically. Locking the door form the outside, Oliver said to Alan, “You will put $500,000 into each of the accounts of each person you took money from.”

“Okay! Yes! Just please- My daughter!” Alan fell to his feet. The sirens were closer, he needed to get out of there. 

“She’d be better off father-less than with a father like you.” He said, and then he was gone. 

“Police cars are coming in from the South and West, make a run for the North, you can turn at Canal Dr. and head back south to the club.” Felicity said. She stayed with him the entire time until he came back inside. He yanked the chip out of his ear and the jacket off. “This takes a lot from you.” Felicity said, throwing a pair of pants and shirt his way, turning around to face her computer screen. “From you too.” He commented, taking the arrow pants off. She said something but he didn’t hear it, she sounded a bit blurry. He was about to fall but held on to the table, feeling weak. ‘No strenuous activities!’ the nurse’s voice repeated in his head. Oops, a little too late for that. He put on the regular pants, ignoring the shirt and laid down on the new mat. 

“Tired?” Felicity asked, seeing him. Instead of answering, he held out a hand for her and she laid down on the mat next to him. She curled up next to him for a while before he fell asleep, and not wanting to wake him up, she simply laid there next to him. She was brushing her fingertips lightly on his arms the way she knew he loved when she saw the needle bite (that’s what she’d called it for a while now), and her of all people knew a needle bite when she saw one. 

Did he get tested? She almost got worried, what if he actually wanted to go through with it? But then she remembered that it would take a miracle for anyone to come back a positive match, so she just laid her head down in his muscly arm, and closed her eyes. What were the chances? Very slim to none is what they were.


	18. Tree House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver shows Felicity the finished tree house

“I have a surprise for you!” 

Oliver snatched her glasses and managed to cover her eyes with a scarf before she realized she was going on. “What have you DONE!?” She asked him with her serious voice. “Why would you think I did anything wrong?” Oliver asked, sounding somewhat hurt. “I don’t trust anything that requires you taking charge while I’m bandaged. SHIT, I didn’t mean it like that.” She groaned and let Oliver lead her through the house to the back. She felt the transition from granite floors to grass, and after a couple seconds he stopped her in the middle of the lawn. 

 

“Are you ready?” He asked her. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck, making a shiver run down her spine. 

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She whispered, and he untied the scarf that had tangled her hair and let her eyes adjust to the light; and once they did she was left breathless. “Oh- my- I can’t believe you actually did it. You actually built a tree house!” She shouted and walked to the tree as fast as she could. “Is the pulley system reliable?” She asked, shoving one foot into the rope loop, and grabbing the other rope with both her hands. 

 

“If you can pull yourself up, yes.” Oliver seemed amused, and crossed his arms over his chest waiting for her to go up on her own. She managed to get a couple feet in the air before she was out of breath and had to come back down. “Here, let me help.” Oliver slid his foot next to hers inside the loop and grabbed the rope right above and below her small hands. 

 

“Are you sure the rope can take this much weight?” She asked, looking at his biceps flex as he pulled them up. The pulley system did have its advantages though, because as he pulled the only way for her to keep her balance and effectively not falling 20 feet to her death (no pun intended), was for her to let go of the rope and swing her arms around Oliver himself, which wasn’t hard because he was already so close.

 

“It’s not going to break. Trust me.”  
“That’s what the bridge of – never mind.” She busied herself with trying not to look down. At the top she put one foot on the floorboard and grabbed on to the wall, using it to pull herself up. There she saw he’d set up a small comfy corner of bean bag chairs, pillows and comforters next to a unstable-looking hand-made shelf leaning against the wall.   
“Wow.” She gasped. “You. Actually. Did it.” She chuckled, sitting on the bean bag chairs. “You like it?” Oliver asked, coming inside as well. Felicity took a second to find the words to say, “Are you- kidding me?! I LOVE it!” She laughed. 

 

“Look,” Oliver turned to the ceiling and taking out a knife. It confused her for a second before she saw the carvings in the wood. ‘Private Property of.’ “I think this part belongs to you.” He said, handing her the knife and leaning comfortably against the opposite wall of the small enclosed space.

“You know, you could’ve made more than just one window.” She said as she got up on her knees and started carving out her name. “This is gonna feel like a fucking oven in the summer.” She laughed.   
“I’ll get AC installed.” Oliver said casually. Felicity froze, and turned to look at him slowly, one eyebrow raised. “Just kidding!” He laughed at her reaction and she went back to singing her name. She finished her masterpiece and leaned back to admire her work.

“Sooo…” she started. “You got some blood work done.” She said.

“That wasn’t a question.” He noted, shifting in place, clearly uncomfortable. “Because I don’t need to ask. I know you got it done. May I ask- mind you, I already know the answer- what the test was for?” She asked. Oliver groaned and his head fell back, exhausted. “Do we have to talk about this now?” He asked. 

“Well, it’s not like I have a lot of time left to talk about it.” She snapped. Oliver looked up and leaned towards her, looking her in the eye, and sighed. “Alright, Felicity. I took a blood test to see if I was a match to give you one of my organs so that you can live. And yes, I know you don’t want to, I’m not asking for your permission. If I paid your doctor I’d kidnap you myself and he’d drug you before you said no.”  
“That’s illegal in so many ways I don’t even know where to begin.” She said in a raspy, gasp-y voice. “…. You wouldn’t… Oh my God, you would.” When the realization hit her, she looked out the window, probably considering jumping off. As if reading her mind he snickered and whispered, “I still run faster than you. If you don’t break the fall with your leg that is.” 

Felicity leaned back, and asked, “What were the results?” 

“I’m a match.” He said, simply, cleaning out the carving on the wood. She felt her stomach fall to the floor and crash into hell. This was the last thing she wanted to hear. Of all people, Oliver? HER Oliver? 

“And I already asked the doctor, and he said we could do the surgery as soon as you signed the papers.”

“Oliver, I can’t. You know I can’t. Why would you- I don’t want to go through all this pain and another surgery just to reject it and cost you an organ.” She explained, “And I might die on the table, my immune system is weak, my body can’t take the stress, I’ll just die on the table, likely. That’s what my doctor said. Which is why I’ve termed myself terminal. If I get the surgery I’ll most likely die. If I don’t, I’ll die.” She threw her hands in the air as if that explanation was the end of the conversation and shrugged.   
“Which is why I didn’t talk to your doctor,” Oliver said, half smiling. “I knew what he’d say, so I spoke to a… Dr. Sheppard? Anyways, this guy is the best, seemingly, and of course we’ll travel to him and all that, but he thinks that his team can get us out alive.” His childish smile made her heart jump out of her chest. 

“You want me to…” 

“Please. You don’t have to answer right away… You have until seven fifty-seven tonight.” He jumped in. “Oliver, that’s not a lot of time!” She exclaimed, searching frantically for her phone to see the time. It was 11:47.   
“Don’t freak out! Don’t freak out! And for the love of God, don’t count the hours left until that time. But if you do decide then we’d have to be on a plane at nine. But don’t freak out.” He watched her expression calm down slowly until she took a deep breath and she nodded. “You’ll do it?!” He asked. “No! I’m nodding because I understand the situation. This… Dr. Sheppard?” Oliver nodded, “Thinks he can do it. This is in my brain, does he know that?” And again. “And the transplant as well? All in one go?” Oliver nodded again. 

“And what about the arrow?” She asked. 

“The Arrow can take a few days off. Diggle and Roy can handle the fort for a while, not to mention Sarah said she’d stay if I got the surgery.” He looked at the wall as he spoke. “You told all of them?!” She asked, her eyes all but bugging out of their sockets.“I had to give them some sort of explanation as to why I was going to be in a hospital in another state, Fel.” He groaned. 

She tightened her lips into a straight line before saying through clenched teeth, “You had no right. I don’t want to be treated differently.” Oliver rolled his eyes. 

“You don’t get it, do you? Felicity, I love you and I won’t allow you to let yourself die simply because you see fit. And you SHOULD be treated differently. You can’t go around exerting yourself, killing yourself faster. I won’t let you.” He said, and suddenly he was there. 

He crossed the small space between them, one hand at the back of her head pulling her close, and his lips smashed onto hers, taking her every thought away. His fingers tangled in her hair as he pulled her body against his with his other hand and her arms, trapped between their bodies, trembled lightly. She gave into the kiss after a few seconds, melted into his embrace and parted her lips, kissing him back, letting his warmth spread all over her. 

 

She knew she was supposed to be upset, but in that instant she couldn’t remember why. Had she ever felt this way? The butterflies tightened her stomach, her lungs contracted, her hands quivered as if she were freezing, yet she felt the lava crawling all over her body. She felt the heat coming off of Oliver, felt his heartbeat against her chest, and when he finally pulled away to breathe, his breath on her neck as he continued to kiss her. 

 

Without thinking about what she was doing she pushed her hands from the tight space and crept her hands under the hem of his shirt. Feeling her hands on his bare skin, Oliver gasped, and pulled away just long enough to look her in the eyes as she pulled the shirt over his head and threw it aside. She let her hands wander all over his skin. She felt every scar, traced over every tattoo that she’d already seen from a distance before. Tired of him kissing her neck and shoulders, she pulled his face back to hers and kissed him, this time with more urgency than before. 

“I want you,” Oliver gasped into her lips, “I NEED you to stay with me.” He kissed her again before she had the chance to come up with an argument. “Mmm, you barely know me.” She moaned, feeling the muscles on his back. She dropped her head back, exposing her neck, and sighed, almost making Oliver go crazy. 

“Wrong.” He said, caressing her collar bone with his lips. “I know you better than you know yourself. I know that you hate cooking, you loved helping me as the Arrow and that made you feel guilty because you thought you should stop me rather than encourage me. Because you want me to be safe, and you get scared every time I go out. I know you get lonely at home, but you don’t want to be with people and pretend to be okay or happier than you would be alone. I know your motto is that it’s better to be alone than in bad company.” As he said this, he leaned her back onto the pillows slowly, her hair splayed in every direction around her head, her cheeks flushed, her eyes wide. 

“I also know,” He continued, “That you have fallen in love before… But I also know you can learn to love me more than you ever loved him.” He whispered, and pulled himself up to be eye to eye with her. He felt naked; not physically or because she’d removed his shirt, but because he’d told her what he really felt. He felt vulnerable, he felt weak and anxious as he watched her neutral face expression.

“Wrong.” She whispered, bring her hands up to cup his face. He was trying to figure out how to act or what to say to her unexpected answer when she finished, “I already do.” And she pulled him down towards her.


	19. The surgery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go through with he surgery, but what she doesn't count on is what she finds out when she wakes up.
> 
> Warning: I did implement some characters from Grey's Anatomy for the purpose of this chapter. 
> 
> P.S. Read with caution...

She sighed, keeping her eyes closed, not wanting to open them in case it had all been a dream. Oliver Queen did manage to get extremely good at this. TOO good for someone who’d been supposedly stranded on an island for five years. Or maybe that’s exactly the reason he’d been so good at it. His head was still resting on her bare stomach and he felt her breathing stop, which is when he leaned up on one elbow to look at her face.  
“Are you feeling okay?” He seemed genuinely concerned, which made Felicity chuckle. “I’m better than okay at this point… I’m great.” She said, looking at the carving on the ceiling on the tree house. 

They were silent for a moment before Oliver cleared his throat. “Umm… I- I would really like it if, if you tried the surgery.” Felicity didn’t answer. “It’s up to you, of course, but, if there’s even the slightest chance that I could spend the rest of my life with you rather than the next six months… I would very much like to take that chance.” His voice broke towards the end.

“If I get the surgery you’d have to change your lifestyle. You’d have to change everything. And the Arrow-”

“We already spoke about the Arrow.” He interrupted her. It WAS true in theory, but she felt uneasy. She clenched her fists at her sides and said, “When does the plane leave?”

“As soon as we’re ready.”

 

>> \--------------------- >

 

Turns out this ‘Dr. Sheppard’ was in Seattle, which was a pretty lengthy flight for them. Oliver sat next to her on his private plane, sleeping the entire time, which was understandable, considering he hadn’t slept much according to Thea since he found out about the cancer.  
She just laid back and without something to keep her entertained, her mind went back to the tree house earlier this morning. She could remember the feel of his hands going down the sides of her torso, his lips on her skin, the way he smelled was intoxicating. She felt her face flush just thinking about how he felt, the way he moved, the way he made her-  
“Would you like another glass of champagne, Miss Smoak?” The flight attendant was suddenly there, leaning over her. “Oh! Um… No, I’m okay, thank you.”  
“A glass of water? You do seem rather heated up.” She looked down at Felicity. 

“No, I’ll be fine, thank you.” She smiled and the flight attendant, whose name she missed, went back to the front of the plane. “Are you okay?” Oliver asked groggily, getting up. “Yes, I’m fine.” Just as she spoke, the captain asked them to buckle up for their decent. 

At the hospital, they assigned her to her room immediately. Apparently Oliver had called before-hand and made quite a few arrangements. Her room was large, plain, and looked like a morgue to her, but maybe that was because she’d known so many people who died in hospitals, she didn’t want to be one of them. 

“This isn’t so bad.” Oliver said, putting her bag down. “Try spending three months here and it’ll seem like hell.” Felicity whispered so low he couldn’t hear her. Just then someone knocked on the door and a man walked in, followed by several other people, all of them in scrubs. 

“Hello! I’m Dr. Sheppard, I’ll be the one removing that ball of disease from your brain!” He smiled wide. Too wide. “And this is Dr. Bailey, she’ll be working along with everyone else on the transplant.” He said and began taking her vitals. 

“And they are…” Oliver stared at the people behind Dr. Sheppard. 

“Sure! This is Dr. Grey, Dr. Slone, he’ll be in charge if not leaving any scar anywhere, Dr. Karev, Dr. Hunt and Dr. Avery. Take a deep breath. We’ve assembled the very best team we have at this hospital for you.” 

“Well… I don’t think we’ll have to worry much about scars on Oliver.” Felicity chuckled, feeling the gaze of all the men in the room on her. She could have sworn Dr. Grey stepped on Dr. Sheppard’s foot but it happened so fast maybe she imagined it. 

“Right now what we’ll do is get you ready for pre-op, but before we go to get ready, si there anything you’d like to ask?” Dr. Sheppard asked, tapping her knee to check her reflexes.

“How about… everything? The procedure, that is.” Felicity asked.

“Sure! First we make a small burr hole in your scalp from where I will take out the tumor while the other doctors make the transplant. We will cauterize the arteries so that you don’t bleed out, we-”

“Okay, never mind, I don’t want to know.” She interrupted him. “I’ll bring the paperwork for you to sign along with the consent form.” Dr. Sheppard said and they all walked out.  
For the next few hours both of them sat, read paperwork, signed papers. A couple of nurses came and had Oliver go to his room (he stopped at the door, winked at her, and said something about ‘I’ll see you in a few’ before he left), had her change into a paper robe she felt uncomfortable in, but the feeling was all too familiar. In the room, all alone, she felt the walls closing in on her. How much time had gone by? She looked out the window and saw the sun was beginning to set. There was a knock on the door.  
“Come in!” She called out, and in walked Margo. She was half smiling, and had a paper bag in one hand. “I come bearing the gift of food.” She almost laughed. 

“Well, it’s gonna have to wait until after the surgery, I’m not allowed to eat.” Felicity mumbled, already smelling the delicious Chinese. “You came a long way from Vegas.” She mentioned, looking at Margo as she took the seat next to the bed. “Well, it’s not every day your best friend decides to stay alive. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. How DID he convince you?” She asked, leaning in. “Because I tried my darnest for a long time and had no luck.”

“Well…” Felicity trailed off, looking away. 

“You had SEX with hIM!!!!!” Margo shouted. “Shhh!! They’ll hear you outside!” Felicity shushed at her. “Oh, don’t worry, that’s nothing new in this hospital, I had a friend who interned here once. He told me some pretty amusing stories before… the bus thing, anyways! How was it?”

“Oh. Margo, I don’t even have words to describe it. He… he focused on me, just me, for the longest time, and so many times.” Felicity’s face was absolutely red. “But that’s not why I decided to come.” 

“But you sure did.” Margo raised one eyebrow and Felicity threw a pillow at her. 

“I mean, he told me he loved me.” She explained. “Like, not friend kind of love.” She whispered.

“Oh my Gosh! Felicity!” Margo hugged her. “Do you love him back?” she asked, leaning away. 

“I think I do, Margo. I really think I do. There’s just… so many things to think about. He’s…” She wanted to say he’s the Arrow but knew already Margo, as much as she loved her, couldn’t keep a secret if her life depended on it. Literally. 

“Forget about everything else. If he loves you, which he obviously does,” She pointed all around them, “And you love him, then be together. Doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks, as long as you’re both happy.” 

Just then some nurses came in and Felicity said a quick goodbye before they took her to the OR. 

 

>> \-------------- >

 

She remembered the mask they put on her face, the blurry sight and feeling she got before everything became darkness.  
When she was in this darkness she could have sworn she got glimpses of Thomas, who died of Leukemia, and Jonathan, who died of breast cancer. She even got a clear look at her father who she hadn’t seen in a long time, but she didn’t know that he was dead, so she just sort of waved at him and he vanished from sight. 

When she came to, the darkness was gone, and she could see the red glare of the light on the other side of her eyelids. She groaned, turning her head to the side and snuck a peak. Margo was sleeping on the chair, drooling, her hair was a complete mess, and there was nobody else in the room. She adjusted her bed so she’d be somewhat sitting up and regretted the movement immediately. The pain shot all through her body, from her midsection. 

“AAhhhhh.” She gasped, breath-less. She stopped the bed, and rested her head back. If she didn’t move, she wouldn’t hurt. Dr. Sheppard walked into the room with a poker face on. 

“Oh, no. I know that face. The transplant didn’t work? The tumor can’t be taken out?” She asked. 

“No, no no no. Your surgery went perfectly. You’re cancer free.” He said. 

“That’s excellent! Haha! I can’t beli- Oh my God, I have to tell Oliver! Will you have him brought here? We can share a room, I want to tell him, he saved my life! Or could I walk there?” She was already pulling the sheets from her legs.

“Miss Smoak! Don’t! You are not strong enough yet!” He said, pushing the sheets back on her. 

“Well, where’s Oliver? Bring him here.” She said.

“Mr. Oliver… didn’t make it. He had tachycardia on the table, his heart was unstable, and it simply stopped. I tried to bring him back several times but I couldn’t. He’s…. dead.”


	20. Post-Surgery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two weeks after the surgery before going home.

“Felicity! Felicity! Nurse! NURSE!”

Felicity could hear the voices, of course, first Margo, then the people running into the room. She could hear them all but shove Margo out. She heard the shouting about the IV bag, about her vitals, the machine going crazy. Everything started to get blurrier, softer noises, and eventually everything turned black again. 

The first thing she noticed was the pain. Everywhere. It felt as though electricity had burnt every part of her body. And then she remembered what the doctor had said and another kind of pain set inside her chest. A kind of pain no amount of medication could take away. It took her a moment to register that the wet things on her face were her own tears. She gasped once she realized this and Margo stood, running to her side. 

“Felicity! It’s okay baby, it’s okay. Nurse! Can we get some morphine or something?!” She shouted at the hall. 

“Can’t. She’s already maxed out. She’s going to feel uncomfortable for a couple of days, she was told this already. It was in the consent form.” The nurse explained to Margo.

“So, what- you’re gonna leave her there in pain?!” Margo asked.

“I’m sorry ma’am. She’ll feel better soon.” And then the nurse walked out. 

“Fel, I’m so sorry.” Margo whispered, caressing Felicity’s hair. 

“Did he… suffer?” Felicity groaned. 

“What?” Margo asked. “Did he suffer? Oliver?” Felicity repeated. There was some silence and then Margo said, “Sweets, I think don’t know what you’re talking about. Oliver’s fine. He’s awake in his room.” Margo said, confused. 

“He’s…” Felicity opened her eyes, it was the only movement that didn’t cause her body to go up in flames. “Alive?” 

“Of course he is! He made it through with flying colors! You were the one that came and went a few times. But you’re officially out of the woods. The cute doctor, the McDreamy one, he came in to check on you every hour. He checked your vitals and don’t worry, I was in top of your hair and makeup just in case.” Margo winked.

“So… Oliver’s okay?” She still didn’t believe it. It felt so real, the words she heard, the whole thing. Was she still under the influence of the sedative when she’d heard that? Had she hallucinated it all? 

“Oliver’s perfect! Thea, Roy, Tommy, Laurel, Sarah, John and Laila are all with him right now, but they all pop in to see you too a couple times a day, which is adorable, since they’re mostly Oliver’s friends, but they care about you too.” Margo smiled. 

“So when can I see him?” She asked. “I’ll tell Oliver to put you bth in the same room and I’ll be right back.” Margo said, patted Felicity’s leg, and walked out.   
She felt her lungs open again, her heart beat steady. It had only been a bad dream. A horrible nightmare, as it was. But they were okay. And that’s when it hit her. They were okay. She was alive, she was- Had her hallucination been all wrong? Was she actually okay?

Dr. Bailey walked in then. “Well, look at that! She lives!” She threw her hands up with the word ‘lives’ to emphasize her point.   
“Yes. I am.” Was all she could say. “Felicity, is it? You died a total of four times. And a total of four times you came back. Someone up there must really not want you there yet. It’s not your tiimme girl! Be happy! Go better, go out and make a change in the world, do something memorable with your life, now that you have it back!” Dr. Bailey said.   
“Am I… Am I gonna live long enough to… do that?” She stammered. “Girl, you are going to live as long as your body can keep up with you. But if you die, it ain’t gonna be because of some stupid cancer tumor in your brain and kidney.” Dr. Bailey smiled and relief made Felicity laugh despite the pain it caused her. 

Dr. Bailey had to leave to check on her other patients and a while Oliver’s bed was accommodated in the same room as hers. He was smiling like an idiot, seeing her there, alive, and Margo heated up the Chinese food she’d gotten yesterday. It was the most delicious thing she’d ever tasted in her life. 

“Life taste great.” She murmured to Oliver. “I know… I do believe that the guys are gonna stop by soon.” He said. 

“Sounds fun.”

 

>> \-------------- >

 

“I can’t believe you didn’t want any of us to know!” Thea complained. “I totally could’ve arranged a themed party before your flight here.”

“I don’t know if that would have been the best idea, but- that would have been interesting to see.” Tommy said.

Thea and Tommy sat at the end of her bed, Laurel and Sarah at the end of Oliver’s, and Margo, like the good friend she was, sat between Oliver and Sarah just in case her presence made Felicity uncomfortable. 

“I really wish I’d known before. I was such a bitch, and I- I’m so sorry, Felicity.” Sarah said, shaking her head at herself. “It’s okay, Sarah, I didn’t tell anyone, it’s not like you’re a mind reader.” Felicity tried to out her mind at ease, and to her surprise Sarah reached out and put her hand on top of Felicity’s. 

“My, uhh… friend is coming to pick me up. Wish I could stay but duty calls. I’ll be calling though.” Sarah added. 

“Friend? Yeah, okay. She means Nyssa. She’s Sarah’s girlfriend. They just recently got back together and now they’re off to travel the world together. Mind you, Nissa’s-”

“Here.” At the door stood a very beautiful woman with dark curls dressed in dark colors. She smiled at Felicity and Oliver. “I’m glad you both are alright now. Sarah was very worried about you.” And she walked straight t Sarah, bending down to kiss her on the lips. She whispered something in Sarah’s ear, who smiled and got up.   
“Whoa! Is it suddenly hot in here?” Tommy asked. “No. It’s not.” Diggle said, clearly irritated with Tommy. Laila elbowed him and Diggle forced a smile at Tommy.

“I’ll see you guys soon. I’ll be back.” Sarah winked at everyone and was out the door with Nissa.  
“As I was saying, mind you- Nissa’s very beautiful.” Thea finished. 

>> \------------------ >

The rest of the week was very peaceful. Little by little she got her mobility in her legs and her strength back and took periodic walks around the hospital with Oliver. By the end of the second week Oliver could walk normal, although he was advised to stay away from contact sports, and to stop drinking altogether. Felicity’s hair mostly covered the area that had to be shaved for the procedure. They told her the bare minimum they needed. However, she doubted she’d be wearing pony tails for a while. She got a large dose of medicine so she wouldn’t reject the kidney every day and checked both their blood pressures a couple times a day until they were finally released.   
Since travel wasn’t recommended for two or three months after surgery, Oliver got an RV to be driven from Seattle to SC, where they could lay down comfortably and stand when their legs went numb. It took three days, but they were finally back home; in SC. And where would they go first, of course, other than Verdant itself?


	21. 5 months later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity's no longer a cancer patient and they have established a steady Arrow routine outside of their regular lives.

Five Months Later…

Oliver stood on the roof of the next building and watched as Detective Lance handcuffed the one and only Richard Lancaster. The man who’d killed several employees of QC out of spite for being fired a year ago. The Arrow had dealt with him just in time to save a certain Ms. Felicity Smoak, though. She was testifying that she was working late in her office when Mr. Lancaster attacked her. 

As soon as Diggle pushed the reporters away Oliver asked through the comm, “Are you okay?”

“More than.” And she smiled in his general direction. “I’ll see you in verdant?” She asked.

“You got it.”

Half an hour later all four of them met again at the foundry. Roy had just gotten his new suit and he wore it quite well. “When are you going to tell Thea?” Felicity asked him. “She already knows,” Roy snickered. “I can’t hide anything from her, she was her ways, so I’d rather tell her myself than have her accidentally bump into the bow one night.” He smiled, putting on his Abercrombie jacket. 

“Roy, you have GOT to get another jacket.” Diggle said. “Why? Does it smell?” Roy immediately dove his nose into his armpit. “Aww, man, get away! No, it doesn’t smell, but you’re wearing it out so much one of these days it’s gonna walk away on its own.” Diggle complained.

“We did pretty good, considering.” Oliver sounded so proud as he ran up the stairs it made Felicity smile. “That we did.” She smiled, twirling around in her chair. 

“I gotta dash, you guys, Laila’s waiting for me.” Diggle said, making his way to the door after grabbing a drink. “Yeah, Thea’s too!” Roy ran after Diggle and the door slammed shut behind them. 

“You’d think by now they’d be a little more discreet about their excuses.” Oliver rolled his eyes, and started to change into his tux quickly. “I’m not sure they know how to BE discreet outside of a leather outfit and body guard position.” Felicity said, playing with the pen she had in her hand. 

“Hmm…. Very true.” He walked towards her, leaning down and kissed her lightly on the lips. 

“You’ve been taking too many liberties lately, sir.” She mumbled against his lips. “Are you- are you not wearing underwear?” He suddenly stuttered, and pulled back to look at her face, clearly shocked. 

“That! Is for me to know.” She said, getting up and grabbing her purse and heading towards the door.” 

Oliver grinned and said, “And for me to find out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided that since the whole story was about Felicity being sick, and she is no longer sick, that the purpose of this fanfic was accomplished, and I would end it on a fun note. Hope you liked it! and again, if you'd like to msg me you can leave a msg here or you can msg my tumblr, the url is arrowfelicity. I'm working on other AU's or I might take some time to focus on my own personal book :3 thank you guys, I love all the comments!


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